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PERPLEXED
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Full of difficulty or confusion or bewilderment
Example:
perplexed state of the world
Classified under:
Similar:
at a loss; nonplused; nonplussed; puzzled (filled with bewilderment)
at sea; baffled; befuddled; bemused; bewildered; confounded; confused; lost; mazed; mixed-up (perplexed by many conflicting situations or statements; filled with bewilderment)
metagrabolised; metagrabolized; metagrobolised; metagrobolized; mystified (totally perplexed and mixed up)
questioning; quizzical (perplexed (as if being expected to know something that you do not know))
stuck (baffled)
Also:
confused (mentally confused; unable to think with clarity or act intelligently)
Antonym:
unperplexed (experiencing no difficulty or confusion or bewilderment)
Derivation:
perplexity (trouble or confusion resulting from complexity)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Past simple / past participle of the verb perplex
Context examples:
Well, I've had a mort of consideration, I do tell you, returned Mr. Peggotty, with a perplexed look which gradually cleared as he went on, concerning of Missis Gummidge.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
But I was bewildered, perplexed, and unable to arrange my ideas sufficiently to understand the full extent of his proposition.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
He was plainly perplexed, and he came back again, pausing a dozen feet away and regarding the two men intently.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
I waited now his return; eager to disburthen my mind, and to seek of him the solution of the enigma that perplexed me.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
“What did Mr. Weston tell you?”—said Emma, still perplexed.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
"This man says, 'An exquisite book, full of truth, beauty, and earnestness.' 'All is sweet, pure, and healthy.'" continued the perplexed authoress.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
The driver was perplexed.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
Like the others, it had a daub of asphalt upon its shoulder, and it was only when we saw one of the natives step forward with the air of an owner and give his consent to the beast's slaughter that we understood at last that these great creatures were as much private property as a herd of cattle, and that these symbols which had so perplexed us were nothing more than the marks of the owner.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Now, at present I am in the position of these same readers, for I hold in this hand several threads of one of the strangest cases which ever perplexed a man’s brain, and yet I lack the one or two which are needful to complete my theory.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
In findings published on Friday, researchers from the University of York and Maldives Whale Shark Research Programme have mapped key habitats of the world's largest fish, the whale shark, shedding light on congregation sites that have perplexed marine biologists.
(New study of endangered whale shark youth shows vital habitat similarities, Wikinews)
