different between befuddle vs amaze

English

Etymology

be- +? fuddle

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /b??f?dl/

• Rhymes: -?dl

Verb

befuddle (third-person singular simple present befuddles, present participle befuddling, simple past and past participle befuddled)

1. (transitive) To perplex, confuse (someone).

2. (transitive) To stupefy (someone), especially with alcohol.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:confuse

Derived terms

• befuddlement

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English *amasen (“to bewilder, perplex”), from Old English ?masian (“to confuse, astonish”), from ?- (perfective prefix) + *masian (“to confound”), equivalent to a- +? maze.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??me?z/
• Rhymes: -e?z

Verb

amaze (third-person singular simple present amazes, present participle amazing, simple past and past participle amazed)

1. (transitive) To fill with wonder and surprise; to astonish, astound, surprise or perplex. [from 16th c.]
   • 1759, Oliver Goldsmith, The Present State of Polite Learning

     Spain has long fallen from amazing Europe with her wit, to amusing them with the greatness of her Catholic credulity.

2. (intransitive) To undergo amazement; to be astounded.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of B. Taylor to this entry?)

3. (obsolete) To stupefy; to knock unconscious. [13th-17th c.]
4. (obsolete) To bewilder; to stupefy; to bring into a maze.
5. (obsolete) To terrify, to fill with panic. [16th-18th c.]
   • , New York Review Books 2001, p.261:

     [Fear] amazeth many men that are to speak or show themselves in public assemblies, or before some great personages […]

Related terms

• amazing
• amazement

Translations

Noun

amaze (uncountable)

1. (now poetic) Amazement, astonishment. [from 16th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.ii:

     All in amaze he suddenly vp start / With sword in hand, and with the old man went [...].

   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 103:

     Shattuck looked at him in amaze.

   • 1985, Lawrence Durrell, Quinx, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 1361:

     She took the proffered cheque and stared at it with puzzled amaze, dazed by her own behaviour.

Yola

Alternative forms

• amize

Noun

amaze

1. wonder, amazement

References

• Jacob Poole (1867) , William Barnes, editor, A glossary, with some pieces of verse, of the old dialect of the English colony in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, J. Russell Smith, ?ISBN