befuddle

The absurdist’s power rests in their ability to befuddle and bewilder, trusting the joke will land with the right folks and insult their target’s intelligence.

From Salon ● May 21, 2026

Today’s pitchers befuddle hitters with velocity and spin rate while exiting before 100 pitches.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

He says he has drawn on classic police interrogation techniques to befuddle chatbots and get them to "crack".

From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2025

Unlike other opposing pitchers that befuddle Seattle’s swing-happy hitters with breaking balls, Woods Richardson challenged them with fastballs — and beat them.

From Seattle Times ● May 6, 2024

Jason wondered if Piper was working some sort of Aphrodite magic on him—like maybe every time he mentioned Reyna’s name, she would befuddle him so much he couldn’t think about anything but Piper.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

Stagflation is the bitterest of economic pills: High inflation mixes with a weak job market to cause a toxic brew that punishes consumers and befuddles economists.

From Seattle Times ● May 26, 2022

He has constructed a glossy fever dream that bewitches as much as it befuddles.

From Salon ● May 20, 2022

Much of what befuddles in “The Green Knight” is of the “What did I just see?” variety.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2021

“The reason the ‘Latino vote’ befuddles is because it doesn’t exist, nor do ‘Latino issues,’” Isvett Verde, an opinion editor at The New York Times, wrote in an election postmortem.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 5, 2020

Grape-growers are not in the fog that befuddles growers of tree-fruits in regard to tillage.

From Manual of American Grape-Growing by U. P. Hedrick

“This is the first time I’ve gone to a sentencing with an empty chair,” Norman Pattis, Diamantis’s befuddled lawyer, told reporters outside the courthouse.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

No wonder Hilton look befuddled when my dad regaled him with the tale of entering the U.S. for the first time in the trunk of a Chevy in 1968.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026

But the question of where Laufey sits in the pantheon of popular music has befuddled critics ever since.

From BBC ● May 2, 2026

One zoomer Republican operative in Washington was befuddled at how Butterworth’s had become such a destination: “A bunch of conservatives just decided it would be our place and I don’t understand why.”

From Slate ● Mar. 10, 2026

His wife rolled onto her back and spent a befuddled ten seconds stretching open her sleep-caked eyes.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols

The office of Armstrong, who said he never met Hsieh and yet was named a co-executor for Hsieh’s estate in the surprise will, received another befuddling document: a death certificate of Singh’s grandfather.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026

Even when her film is utterly befuddling, it’s a joy to behold.

From Salon ● Mar. 8, 2026

Many of the most befuddling stocks reviewed by Barron’s are holding companies incorporated in the Cayman Islands or the British Virgin Islands with investors or subsidiaries that are also Caribbean holding companies.

From Barron's ● Nov. 18, 2025

After getting outclassed for an hour and trailing 1-0 when by rights it should have been two or three, how did Scotland win this monumentally befuddling World Cup qualifier 3-1?

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2025

It was harder to feel scared of a lump of tea leaves away from the dim red light and befuddling perfume of Professor Trelawney’s classroom.

From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling