What's the difference between baffle and befuddle?

Baffle


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To cause to undergo a disgraceful punishment, as a recreant knight.
  • (v. t.) To check by shifts and turns; to elude; to foil.
  • (v. t.) To check by perplexing; to disconcert, frustrate, or defeat; to thwart.
  • (v. i.) To practice deceit.
  • (v. i.) To struggle against in vain; as, a ship baffles with the winds.
  • (n.) A defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I usually use them as a rag with which to clean the toilet but I didn’t have anything else to wear today because I’m so fat.” While this exchange will sound baffling to outsiders, to Brits it actually sounds like this: “You like my dress?
  • (2) In our center, 12 patients with an average age of 3 months were operated on for interatrial baffle correction of their TGA under surface-induced deep hypothermia.
  • (3) During a 3 year period, 54 children aged 4 days to 5 years, including 24 infants aged 3 months or younger, underwent the baffle procedure.
  • (4) The contrast between these two worlds – one legal and flourishing, the other illegal and stubbornly disregarding of state lines – can seem baffling, yet it may have profound consequences for whether this unique experiment spreads.
  • (5) Cine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used for postoperative evaluation of eight patients who underwent intra-atrial baffle procedure for surgical repair of D-transposition of the great arteries (D-TGA).
  • (6) And it was here, several years later, that I came looking for an answer to a question which has baffled many cynical film critics: how did a low-key prison drama, which was considered a box-office flop on its initial release, become one of the most popular movies of all time?
  • (7) and the frankly baffling: "Could have just started the greatest Facebook argument ever.
  • (8) Those against the changes include Crace, the 2011 winner Julian Barnes and Philip Hensher, who wrote in the Guardian: "It seems quite baffling to many writers that a major prize that has so successfully promoted them should move its terms so radically and for no good reason."
  • (9) Discrete and persitent echoes were noted within the original left atrial cavity and contrast echocardiography was used to establish that these originated from the interatrial baffle.
  • (10) Danziger, who flatly refused to go on an official trip to the circus, said gaining access was a daily battle, but in some cases their minders were more baffled than obstructive and couldn't understand why they wanted to meet hairdressers or fishermen.
  • (11) I probably should have done this three months ago, but I’ve done everything right, we’ve tried everything and everyone has been baffled.” The dilemma was obvious: whether stopping now means she will be fully recovered for the run-in to the 2016 Olympics.
  • (12) Mourinho has been vociferous in his complaints about the scheduling of key domestic fixtures around European ties this season and reiterated his dissatisfaction after Tuesday's goalless draw in Madrid, claiming to be baffled as to why the match at Anfield could not be played on Friday or Saturday to assist the last English club involved in European competition.
  • (13) Baffle leaks were found in five patients with mild bidirectional shunting.
  • (14) Much of late 20th-century human behaviour frankly baffled him.
  • (15) The lack of obvious motive baffled commentators who said the British director of Top Gun, Crimson Tide and Beverly Hills Cop II appeared to have it all: success, wealth, respect, a wife and two young children.
  • (16) But as she sped along the pavement in Westminster yesterday, captured on film by cameramen and baffled tourists alike, repeating the words "we won!
  • (17) Right to left shunts ranging from 28 to 63 percent of systemic blood flow were found at the superior vena caval-baffle junction in four children.
  • (18) Subsequent RAC after reoperation initially showed insignificant flow through the atrial baffle, major flow through the HAV, and no shunt.
  • (19) It’s something that has always baffled and amused me about my grandmother.
  • (20) 10.57am BST In case, like one of my younger colleagues, you were baffled by the Sam Cooke reference, this lovely song should clear it up.

Befuddle


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To becloud and confuse, as with liquor.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Most are befuddled tourists who have no idea what is going on!
  • (2) 1) Brilliance of Barcelona shows up the Premier League When performing as they did in the first half Barcelona are dazzling – their control, passing and movement befuddled Manchester City .
  • (3) Donald Trump is technology's befuddled (but dangerous) grandfather Read more “So it could be somebody else.
  • (4) "I like your watch," he says while I gibber into his big, beautiful, travel-befuddled face.
  • (5) Lastly, after an affectedly befuddled defense of NSA metadata mining as “hugely important” and victim of a “debate [that] has gotten off track”, Jeb boldly reiterated the Reagan line of “peace through strength”.
  • (6) The pilots of his plane were befuddled by thick fog as they attempted to land, and crashed into a forest adjoining Smolensk’s airfield.
  • (7) The housing benefit system is so complicated, and people get so befuddled by what’s happening to them, and then they end up in court,” Smith says.
  • (8) He didn't really do anything but his presence befuddled Sakho, who just stood there and allowed the ball to bounce off his thigh and back to Oscar.
  • (9) The following Sunday, I was still befuddled with the Saturday drink – and in danger of dodging mass again.
  • (10) Who knew that the Rolling Stones, perhaps still befuddled by the recent events at Altamont, booked him to play at their 1969 Christmas party?
  • (11) Privately, [pollsters] are terrified and befuddled,” said one senior industry figure.
  • (12) As people will, they were quick to point to the weakness in the Genius system: if you start with a Beatles track, then the Genius is befuddled.
  • (13) Labour politicians talked about being “stunned” and “befuddled”, and of “a cold bitter morning”.
  • (14) But if Snoke was to announce himself – Benedict Cumberbatch style – as Darth Plagueis in Episode VIII, the supposed big reveal would be met with choruses of befuddlement in cinemas across the globe.
  • (15) June 6, 2014 3.54am BST Heat 67-69 Spurs, 3:53 remaining, third quarter Hahaha, alright Ginobili just took advantage of a massive Heat defensive lapse, hitting a layout in front of some befuddled Heat defenders.
  • (16) Like all self-respecting pagan gods, Gaiman's deities enjoy the human befuddlement that they cause.
  • (17) 11.02pm BST Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) What's befuddling is that there wasn't a single event or moment that flipped the momentum of gun policy reform.
  • (18) The Kings won again, this time 3-0 in regulation to take a similarly daunting 3-0 lead in the series, but it was the way in which they did it that could leave one still befuddled.
  • (19) With all due respect to the Baltimore Ravens , this Super Bowl's legacy will be the moment when the year's most expensive television program was caught looking as unprepared and befuddled as the most low budgeted local broadcast.
  • (20) The worst someone can say is that I am some befuddled old guy who doesn’t have a clue.” The Guardian view on giving ministers a free vote on Europe | Editorial Read more Rose headed Marks & Spencer, the biggest clothing retailer on the high street, between 2004 and 2010.