puzzle out

Meanings

verbpuzzle out (third-person singular simple present puzzles out, present participle puzzling out, simple past and past participle puzzled out)

present singular third person puzzles out · participle present puzzling out · participle past puzzled out · past puzzled out

idiomatictransitiveTo figure out; to discover or find a solution to.
[…] but Clover, who thought she remembered a definite ruling against beds, went to the end of the barn and tried to puzzle out the Seven Commandments which were inscribed there.
1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC
Synonyms: iron out, think out, work out, absolve, decipher, get to the bottom of, iron out, meliorate

verbTo figure out; to discover or find a solution to.

verbfind the solution to (a problem or question) or understand the meaning of

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Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Polish wywnioskować

Cite this entry

APA

puzzle out. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/puzzle%20out

MLA

“puzzle out.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/puzzle%20out. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “puzzle out,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/puzzle%20out.