different between gaffle vs baffle

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??æfl?/
• Rhymes: -æf?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English gaffolle, a borrowing from Middle Dutch gaffel, gafel (“fork”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *gabulu (“fork”), related to Old English gafol, ?eafel (“fork”).

Noun

gaffle (plural gaffles)

1. (obsolete) A lever used to bend a crossbow.
2. A steel spur attached to a gamecock (sometimes used figuratively).
3. (historical, artillery) A portable fork of iron or wood in which the heavy musket formerly in use was rested that it might be accurately aimed and fired.

Verb

gaffle (third-person singular simple present gaffles, present participle gaffling, simple past and past participle gaffled)

1. To equip with a gaffle or similar weapon.

Etymology 2

Blend of gaff +? grapple.

Verb

gaffle (third-person singular simple present gaffles, present participle gaffling, simple past and past participle gaffled)

1. To grab or seize
2. To get hold of, to find.
3. To arrest for criminal activity.
4. To steal
5. To swindle or bully (someone)
6. To talk without a purpose, usually about inane or pointless topics; to babble.

References

• OED 2nd edition 1989 (noun sense)

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