Baffle \Baf"fle\, n.

1. (Engin.)
   (a) A deflector, as a plate or wall, so arranged across a furnace or boiler flue as to mingle the hot gases and deflect them against the substance to be heated.
   (b) A grating or plate across a channel or pipe conveying water, gas, or the like, by which the flow is rendered more uniform in different parts of the cross section of the stream; -- used in measuring the rate of flow, as by means of a weir.

2. (Coal Mining) A lever for operating the throttle valve of a winding engine. [Local, U. S.]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Baffle \Baf"fle\, v. i.

1. To practice deceit. [Obs.]

--Barrow.

2. To struggle against in vain; as, a ship baffles with the winds. [R.]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Baffle \Baf"fle\, n. A defeat by artifice, shifts, and turns; discomfiture. [R.]

``A baffle to philosophy.'' --South.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)