different between tantalize vs baffle
tantalize
English
Etymology
From Tantalus (????????) in Greek mythology, who was condemned to Tartarus in the underworld. There, he had to stand for eternity in water that receded from him when he stooped to drink, beneath fruit trees whose branches were always out of reach.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?tænt?la?z/
Verb
tantalize (third-person singular simple present tantalizes, present participle tantalizing, simple past and past participle tantalized)
- (transitive) to tease (someone) by offering something desirable but keeping it out of reach
- (transitive) to bait (someone) by showing something desirable but leaving them unsatisfied
Quotations
- 1880 — John Boyle O'Reilly, Moondyne
- They could not bear to be tantalized nor tortured by the splendid delusion.
- 1884 — Edwin Abbott Abbott, Flatland, section 22
- All pleasures palled upon me; all sights tantalized and tempted me to outspoken treason, because I could not but compare what I saw in Two Dimensions with what it really was if seen in Three, and could hardly refrain from making my comparisons aloud.
- “It was—simply amazing,” she repeated abstractedly. “But I swore I wouldn’t tell it and here I am tantalizing you.”
- 1936 — H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness, Ch. IX
- As we threaded our dim way through the labyrinth with the aid of map and compass ... we were repeatedly tantalized by the sculptured walls along our route. ... If we had had more films, we would certainly have paused briefly to photograph certain bas-reliefs, but time-consuming hand-copying was clearly out of the question.
Related terms
- tantalizing
Translations
tantalize From the web:
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baffle
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)
- (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 […].
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.7:
- (obsolete) To hoodwink or deceive (someone). [16th-18th c.]
- a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Duty of Prayer (sermon)
- pretences to baffle with his goodness
- a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Duty of Prayer (sermon)
- 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]
- (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.
- 1798, William Cowper, On the Receipt of My Mother's Picture
- (intransitive) To struggle in vain. [from 19th c.]
Translations
Derived terms
- bafflegab
Noun
baffle (plural baffles)
- 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.
- An architectural feature designed to confuse enemies or make them vulnerable.
- (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)
- speaker (audio)
- Synonym: haut-parleur
baffle From the web:
- what baffled means
- what baffles me
- what baffled military leaders
- what baffles you
- what baffle does mean
- bafflement meaning
- what baffle means in spanish
- what's baffle in german
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