different between contradict vs baffle

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin contradict-, the participle stem of contr?d?c? (“I speak against”) (originally two words).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /k?nt???d?kt/

Verb

contradict (third-person singular simple present contradicts, present participle contradicting, simple past and past participle contradicted)

1. To deny the truth or validity of (a statement or statements).

   His testimony contradicts hers.

   • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, London: Andrew Crooke, Chapter 42 “Of Power Ecclesiasticall,” p. 270,^[1]

     […] the Ministers of Christ in this world, have no Power by that title, to Punish any man for not Beleeving, or for Contradicting what they say;

   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Volume 1, Chapter 23,^[2]

     Day after day passed away without bringing any other tidings of him than the report which shortly prevailed in Meryton of his coming no more to Netherfield the whole winter; a report which highly incensed Mrs. Bennet, and which she never failed to contradict as a most scandalous falsehood.

   • 1959, Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers, New York: Ace Books, 2006, Chapter , p. 97,^[3]

     I spent the whole long hike back to camp thinking about that amazing letter. It didn’t sound in the least like anything he had ever said in class. Oh, I don’t mean it contradicted anything he had told us in class; it was just entirely different in tone.

2. To oppose (a person) by denying the truth or pertinence of a given statement.

   Everything he says contradicts me.

   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act II, Scene 3,^[4]

     Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,

     And say it is not so.

   • 1753, Samuel Richardson, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, London, Volume 5, Letter 17, p. 113,^[5]

     […] all these people having deservedly the reputation of good sense, penetration, and so-forth, I cannot contradict them with credit to myself.

   • 1915, Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out, New York: George H. Doran, 1920, Chapter 15, p. 199,^[6]

     “I always contradict my husband when he says that,” said Mrs. Thornbury sweetly. “You men! Where would you be if it weren’t for the women!”

3. To be contrary to (something).
   • 1604, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiasticall Politie, London, Book 2, p. 118,^[7]

     Now no truth can contradict any truth; desirous therefore they were to be taught, how bothe might stand together, that which they knew could not be false, because Christ spake it; and this which to them did seeme true, onely because the Scribes had said it.

   • 1760, Laurence Sterne, The Sermons of Mr. Yorick, London: R. & J. Dodsley, Volume 1, Sermon 2, p. 32,^[8]

     […] as he is going to a house dedicated to joy and mirth, it was fit he should divest himself of whatever was likely to contradict that intention, or be inconsistent with it.

   • 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Book 5, “The Pastor,” p. 231,^[9]

     […] True indeed it is

     That They whom Death has hidden from our sight

     Are worthiest of the Mind’s regard; with these

     The future cannot contradict the past:

   • 1980, Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers, Penguin, 1981, Chapter 60, p. 486,

     My persona was mildly liked by television audiences. Its features were recognizable and caricaturable—the cigarette in its Dunhill holder wielded as gracefully as a Queen Anne fan, the Savile Row suitings whose conservative elegance was contradicted by opennecked silk shirts from Kuala Lumpur or by cream polo sweaters […]

4. (obsolete) To give an order contrary to (another order or wish), oppose (something).
   • c. 1612, William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, Henry VIII, Act II, Scene 4,^[10]

     […] when was the hour

     I ever contradicted your desire,

     Or made it not mine too?

   • 1662, Margaret Cavendish, The Matrimonial Trouble, Act II, Scene 21 in Playes written by the thrice noble, illustrious and excellent princess, the Lady Marchioness of Newcastle, London: John Martyn et al., p. 435,^[11]

     Lady Sprightly. What had you to do to contradict my commands?

     Doll Subtilty. They were not fit to be obey’d, wherefore they were forbid.

5. (obsolete) To give an order contrary to one given by (another person), oppose or resist (someone).
   • 1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, London: William Jones,^[12]

     Beseemes it thee to contradict thy king? […]

     I will haue Gaueston, and you shall know,

     What danger tis to stand against your king.

   • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act V, Scene 3,^[13]

     A greater power than we can contradict

     Hath thwarted our intents.

6. (obsolete) To speak against; to forbid.
   • , New York 2001, p. 203:

     […] magic hath been publicly professed in former times, in Salamanca, Cracovia, and other places, though after censured by several universities, and now generally contradicted, though practised by some still […].

Synonyms

• disconfirm
• deny
• dispute
• question
• gainsay
• refute
• controvert
• dispute

Related terms

• contradiction
• contradictory

Translations

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