Crossword clues for perplex
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Perplex \Per*plex"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Perplexed; p. pr. & vb. n. Perplexing.] [L. perplexari. See Perplex, a.]
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To involve; to entangle; to make intricate or complicated, and difficult to be unraveled or understood; as, to perplex one with doubts.
No artful wildness to perplex the scene.
--Pope.What was thought obscure, perplexed, and too hard for our weak parts, will lie open to the understanding in a fair view.
--Locke. -
To embarrass; to puzzle; to distract; to bewilder; to confuse; to trouble with ambiguity, suspense, or anxiety. ``Perplexd beyond self-explication.''
--Shak.We are perplexed, but not in despair.
--2 Cor. iv. 8.We can distinguish no general truths, or at least shall be apt to perplex the mind.
--Locke. -
To plague; to vex; to tormen.
--Glanvill.Syn: To entangle; involve; complicate; embarrass; puzzle; bewilder; confuse; distract. See Embarrass.
Perplex \Per*plex"\, a. [L. perplexus entangled, intricate; per
+ plectere, plexum, to plait, braid: cf. F. perplexe. See
Per-, and Plait.]
Intricate; difficult. [Obs.]
--Glanvill.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 14c. as an adjective, "perplexed, puzzled, bewildered," from Latin perplexus "involved, confused, intricate;" but Latin had no corresponding verb *perplectere. The Latin compound would be per "through" (see per) + plexus "entangled," past participle of plectere "to twine, braid, fold" (see complex (adj.)).\n
\nThe form of the English adjective shifted to perplexed by late 15c., probably to conform to other past participle adjectives. The verb is latest attested of the group, in 1590s, evidently a back-formation from the adjective. Related: Perplexing, which well describes the history of the word.
Wiktionary
(context obsolete English) intricate; difficult v
1 (context transitive English) To cause to feel baffled; to puzzle#Verb. 2 (context transitive English) To involve; to entangle; to make intricate or complicated. 3 (context transitive obsolete English) To plague; to vex; to torment.
WordNet
v. be a mystery or bewildering to; "This beats me!"; "Got me--I don't know the answer!"; "a vexing problem"; "This question really stuck me" [syn: vex, stick, get, puzzle, mystify, baffle, beat, pose, bewilder, flummox, stupefy, nonplus, gravel, amaze, dumbfound]
make more complicated; "There was a new development that complicated the matter" [syn: complicate] [ant: simplify]
Usage examples of "perplex".
Morovian Agrostology both perplexing and disturbing and has had any number of royal rows with him, during which he has tried to convince the boy to drop his study of grass in favor of more fitting pursuits.
Though perplexing to his palate, it was anything but unpleasant, despite the immediate and unsettling proximity of its ambulatory alien origins.
He resembled Othello not only in his taste for antres vast and deserts idle but in his tendency, being wrought, to become perplexed in the extreme.
Those persons who, from their age, or sex, or occupations, were the least qualified to judge, who were the least exercised in the habits of abstract reasoning, aspired to contemplate the economy of the Divine Nature: and it is the boast of Tertullian, that a Christian mechanic could readily answer such questions as had perplexed the wisest of the Grecian sages.
In days long gone, when the Mountain Folk were sore perplexed, they sought counsel of the Archimage, the White Lady, she who is the guardian and protector of all Folk.
Perhaps our mysterious Tupak Soiree was actually a master hypnotist, a mentalist who spun a fine, perplexing web of interwoven .
Queen, as the mostly white nigra slave child of her son-in-law, perplexed Becky.
Annoyed, suspicious, perplexed, I stood on the porch watching my pantherine visitor retrace his path to the metal gate.
Instead of the little passions which so frequently perplex a female reign, the steady administration of Zenobia was guided by the most judicious maxims of policy.
I am perplexed with it only because there seems to be pertinacity about it.
Formally, Perplexing Poultry was about the idea that space can be thought of as a quasicrystal, that is, as a nonrepeating tessellation of two kinds of polyhedral cell.
Joseph Blaine hated prolixity almost as much as he hated Napoleon Buonaparte, yet this extreme curtness perplexed Stephen until, recalling times past, he turned the halfsheet over and there on the lower left-hand corner found the faintly-pencilled letter pi, signifying many.
Perplexed, Shichisaburo rubbed the faint stubble on the shaved front portion of his head.
Horsethief Shorty murmured, perplexed, biting his lips to keep from laughing, lacking an answer for once.
Consequently, he seems to be perplexed, and under necessity of sinning, which is not becoming.