puzzled
adj/ˈpʌ.zl̩d/
1
Confused or perplexed.
- They diſentangle from the puzzled ſkein / In vvhich obſcurity has vvrapp'd them up, / The threads of politic and ſhrevvd deſign / That ran through all his purpoſes, […]1785, William Cowper, “Book III. The Garden.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 98:
- [W]hen the day of the departure came, between her two customs of laughing and crying, Miss Sedley was greatly puzzled how to act.1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XI, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
2 more examples
- Once or twice he scratched his head, and stared out of the window with a puzzled frown. And each time, after a brief survey of the other side of Half Moon Street, he turned back again to the breakfast table with a grin.1920, Herman Cyril McNeile, chapter 1, in Bulldog Drummond:
- They could not, it was said, keep Scandinavian bogies and the Scriptures separate in their puzzled brains.1936, J. R. R. Tolkien, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions, published 1976, page 17:
- Derived terms
- puzzledly, puzzledness