What is "baffling wind"

Baffle \Baf"fle\ (b[a^]f"f'l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Baffled (-f'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Baffling (-fl[i^]ng).] [Cf. Lowland Scotch bauchle to treat contemptuously, bauch tasteless, abashed, jaded, Icel. b[=a]gr uneasy, poor, or b[=a]gr, n., struggle, b[ae]gja to push, treat harshly, OF. beffler, beffer, to mock, deceive, dial. G. b["a]ppe mouth, beffen to bark, chide.]

1. To cause to undergo a disgraceful punishment, as a recreant knight. [Obs.]

   He by the heels him hung upon a tree, And baffled so, that all which passed by The picture of his punishment might see.
   --Spenser.

2. To check by shifts and turns; to elude; to foil.

   The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim.
   --Cowper.

3. To check by perplexing; to disconcert, frustrate, or defeat; to thwart. ``A baffled purpose.''
   --De Quincey.

   A suitable scripture ready to repel and baffle them all.
   --South.

   Calculations so difficult as to have baffled, until within a . . . recent period, the most enlightened nations.
   --Prescott.

   The mere intricacy of a question should not baffle us.
   --Locke.

   Baffling wind (Naut.), one that frequently shifts from one point to another.

   Syn: To balk; thwart; foil; frustrate; defeat.

n. (context nautical English) A wind that frequently shifts from one point to another.