different between baffle vs addle

English

Alternative forms

• bafful, baffol (both obsolete)

Etymology

Origin uncertain. Perhaps related to French bafouer (“to scorn”) or obsolete French befer (“to mock”), via Scots bauchle (“to disgrace”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bæfl?/
• Hyphenation: baf?fle
• Rhymes: -æf?l

Verb

baffle (third-person singular simple present baffles, present participle baffling, simple past and past participle baffled)

1. (obsolete) To publicly disgrace, especially of a recreant knight. [16th-17th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.7:

     He by the heeles him hung upon a tree, / And baffuld so, that all which passed by / The picture of his punishment might see […].

2. (obsolete) To hoodwink or deceive (someone). [16th-18th c.]
   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Duty of Prayer (sermon)

     pretences to baffle with his goodness

3. To bewilder completely; to confuse or perplex. [from 17th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:confuse

   • 1843, William H. Prescott, The History of the Conquest of Mexico

     computations, so difficult as to have baffled, till a comparatively recent period, the most enlightened nations

   • Every abstruse problem, every intricate question will not baffle, discourage or break it [the mind]

4. (now rare) To foil; to thwart. [from 17th c.]
   • 1798, William Cowper, On the Receipt of My Mother's Picture

     the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim

   • a suitable scripture ready to repel and baffle them all

   • 1915, Edward Plunkett, Lord Dunsany, Fifty-One Tales

     So they had to search the world again for a sphinx. And still there was none. But they were not men that it is easy to baffle, and at last they found a sphinx in a desert at evening watching a ruined temple whose gods she had eaten hundreds of years ago when her hunger was on her.

5. (intransitive) To struggle in vain. [from 19th c.]

Translations

Derived terms

• bafflegab

Noun

baffle (plural baffles)

1. A device used to dampen the effects of such things as sound, light, or fluid. Specifically, a baffle is a surface which is placed inside an open area to inhibit direct motion from one part to another, without preventing motion altogether.

2. An architectural feature designed to confuse enemies or make them vulnerable.
3. (US, dialect, coal mining) A lever for operating the throttle valve of a winding engine.

Descendants

• ? French: baffle
• ? Spanish: bafle

Translations

Further reading

• “baffle”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

References

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English baffle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bafl/

Noun

baffle m or f (plural baffles)

1. speaker (audio)

   Synonym: haut-parleur

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ.d?l/
• Rhymes: -æd?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English addlen, adlen, from Old English edl?an (“reward, pay-back”), edl?anian (“to reward, recompense”); or more likely, from Old Norse ?ðlask (“to gain possession of property”), from ?ðal (“owndom, property”).

Verb

addle (third-person singular simple present addles, present participle addling, simple past and past participle addled)

1. (provincial, Northern England) To earn, earn by labor; earn money or one's living.
2. (provincial, Northern England) To thrive or grow; to ripen.
   • 1573, Thomas Tusser, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry

     Kill ivy, or else tree will addle no more.

Etymology 2

From Middle English adel (“rotten”), from Old English adel, adela (“mire, pool, liquid excrement”), from Proto-Germanic *adalaz, *adalô (“cattle urine, liquid manure”). Akin to Scots adill, North Frisian ethel (“urine”), Saterland Frisian adel "dung", Middle Low German adele "mud, liquid manure" (Dutch aal "puddle"), Old Swedish adel "urine", Bavarian Adel (“liquid manure”).

Adjective

addle (comparative more addle, superlative most addle)

1. Having lost the power of development, and become rotten; putrid.

2. (by extension) Unfruitful or confused; muddled.
   • (prologue)

     Thus far the poet; but his brains grow addle,

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

addle (plural addles)

1. (obsolete) Liquid filth; mire.
2. (provincial) Lees; dregs.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wright to this entry?)

Verb

addle (third-person singular simple present addles, present participle addling, simple past and past participle addled)

1. To make addle; to grow addle; to muddle
   • 1782, William Cowper, Pairing Time Anticipated

     Their eggs were addled.

   • 2000, Quentin Skinner, “The Adviser to Princes”, in Nigel Warburton; Jon Pike; Derek Matravers, Reading Political Philosophy: Machiavelli to Mill, Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge in association with The Open University, 978-0-415-21196-3, page 30:

     [Niccolò] Machiavelli had received an early lesson in the value of addling men's brains. […] [A] talent for addling men's brains is part of the armoury of any successful prince […] .

2. To cause fertilised eggs to lose viability, by killing the developing embryo within through shaking, piercing, freezing or oiling, without breaking the shell.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

addle (plural addles)

1. A foolish or dull-witted fellow.

Anagrams

• daled, dedal, laded