different between stall vs baffle

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /st??l/
• Rhymes: -??l
• (US) IPA^(key): /st?l/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /st?l/

Etymology 1

From Middle English stall, stalle, from Old English steall (“standing place, position”), from Proto-Germanic *stallaz, from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, put, post, stand”).

Noun

stall (plural stalls)

1. (countable) A compartment for a single animal in a stable or cattle shed.

   Synonym: boose

2. A stable; a place for cattle.
3. A bench or table on which small articles of merchandise are exposed for sale.
5. (countable) A small open-fronted shop, for example in a market, food court, etc.
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars:

     He looked in vain into the stalls for the butcher who had sold fresh meat twice a week, on market days [...]
6. A very small room used for a shower or a toilet.
   • 1990, John Updike, Rabbit at Rest:

     Rabbit eases from the king-size bed, goes into their bathroom with its rose-colored one-piece Fiberglas tub and shower stall, and urinates into the toilet of a matching rose porcelain.

7. (countable) A seat in a theatre close to and (about) level with the stage; traditionally, a seat with arms, or otherwise partly enclosed, as distinguished from the benches, sofas, etc.
8. (aeronautics) Loss of lift due to an airfoil's critical angle of attack being exceeded.
9. (Germanic paganism) An Heathen altar, typically an indoor one, as contrasted with a more substantial outdoor harrow.
10. A seat in a church, especially one next to the chancel or choir, reserved for church officials and dignitaries.
11. A church office that entitles the incumbent to the use of a church stall.
    • 1910 [1840], Alexandre Dumas, père, translator not mentioned, Celebrated Crimes: Urbain Grandier, P. F. Collier edition,

      When he had been some months installed there as a priest-in-charge, he received a prebendal stall, thanks to the same patrons, in the collegiate church of Sainte-Croix.

12. A sheath to protect the finger.
13. (mining) The space left by excavation between pillars.
14. (Canada) A parking stall; a space for a vehicle in a parking lot or parkade.

Derived terms

• deep stall
• shock stall

Translations

Related terms

• stall-fed
• orchestra stalls

Verb

stall (third-person singular simple present stalls, present participle stalling, simple past and past participle stalled)

1. (transitive) To put (an animal, etc.) in a stall.
2. To fatten.

3. (intransitive) To come to a standstill.
4. (transitive) To cause to stop making progress, to hinder, to slow down, to delay or forestall.
5. To plunge into mire or snow so as not to be able to get on; to set; to fix.
   • 1884, Edward Everett Hale, The Fortunes of Rachel:

     His horses had been stalled in the snow.

6. (intransitive, of an engine) To stop suddenly.
7. (transitive, automotive) To cause the engine of a manual-transmission car to stop by going too slowly for the selected gear.
8. (intransitive, aviation) To exceed the critical angle of attack, resulting in loss of lift.
9. (transitive, aviation) To cause to exceed the critical angle of attack, resulting in loss of lift.

10. (obsolete) To live in, or as if in, a stall; to dwell.
11. (obsolete) To be stuck, as in mire or snow; to stick fast.
12. (obsolete) To be tired of eating, as cattle.
13. To place in an office with the customary formalities; to install.
14. To forestall; to anticipate.
    • 1636, Philip Massinger, The Bashful Lover

      not to be stall'd by my report

15. To keep close; to keep secret.

Derived terms

• forestall
• stall for time

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English stallen (“to abide, dwell, place in a location, stop, come to a standstill”), partly from Old French estaler, ultimately from the same origin as Etymology 1 (see above); and partly from Middle English stalle (“fixed position, stall”).

Noun

stall (plural stalls)

1. An action that is intended to cause or actually causes delay.

   His encounters with security, reception, the secretary, and the assistant were all stalls until the general manager's attorney arrived.

Translations

Verb

stall (third-person singular simple present stalls, present participle stalling, simple past and past participle stalled)

1. (transitive) To employ delaying tactics against.

   He stalled the creditors as long as he could.

2. (intransitive) To employ delaying tactics.

   Soon it became clear that she was stalling to give him time to get away.

Synonyms

• (transitive): delay, postpone, put off
• (intransitive): delay, penelopize, procrastinate

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “stall”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• talls

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse stallr

Noun

stall m (definite singular stallen, indefinite plural staller, definite plural stallene)

1. a stable (building where horses are housed)

Derived terms

• lokomotivstall

References

• “stall” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse stallr

Noun

stall m (definite singular stallen, indefinite plural stallar, definite plural stallane)

1. a stable (building where horses are housed)

Derived terms

• lokomotivstall

References

• “stall” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish stalder, from Old Norse stallr.

Pronunciation

Noun

stall n

1. stable, building for housing horses
2. a team in certain sports, in particular racing.
3. bridge (of a violin etc.)

Declension

Descendants

• ? Finnish: talli
  • ? Ingrian: talli

Anagrams

• talls

Westrobothnian

Etymology

From Old Norse stallr, from Proto-Germanic *stallaz.

Noun

stall m (definite singular stalln, definite plural stalla)

1. a stable (building where horses are housed)

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