puzzled

comparative more puzzled · superlative most puzzled

1. Confused or perplexed.

   They could not, it was said, keep Scandinavian bogies and the Scriptures separate in their puzzled brains.

   1936, J. R. R. Tolkien, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions, published 1976, page 17

   3 more examples

   They diſentangle from the puzzled ſkein / In vvhich obſcurity has vvrapp'd them up, / The threads of politic and ſhrevvd deſign / That ran through all his purpoſes, […]

   1785, William Cowper, “Book III. The Garden.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 98

   [W]hen the day of the departure came, between her two customs of laughing and crying, Miss Sedley was greatly puzzled how to act.

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XI, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

   Once or twice he scratched his head, and stared out of the window with a puzzled frown. And each time, after a brief survey of the other side of Half Moon Street, he turned back again to the breakfast table with a grin.

   1920, Herman Cyril McNeile, chapter 1, in Bulldog Drummond

   Synonyms: stuck

1. participlepastsimple past and past participle of puzzle