puzzled

1. 1
   adjective

   Confused or unable to make sense of something that seems strange or unclear.

   He scratched his head, puzzled by the missing key.

   The detectives remained puzzled about the motive for weeks.

   Similarconfused, perplexed, baffled, bewildered, mystified

   Note

   A participle that has settled into a true adjective, and the sign is that it grades: more puzzled, most puzzled, greatly puzzled. It often describes the face or the mind rather than the whole person, as in the puzzled frown of Bulldog Drummond (1920) or the puzzled brains of Tolkien's Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics (1936). In Thackeray's Vanity Fair, Miss Sedley is greatly puzzled how to act, with a how-clause attached directly.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of puzzle.

   The missing evidence puzzled investigators throughout the trial.

   His cryptic note had puzzled her for years.

   Note

   One spelling does duty for every use of the verb. As a transitive verb it means mystified someone (the note puzzled her). As an intransitive verb it means thought hard in bewilderment, with no object (she puzzled for an hour). A further transitive use means made something tangled. Only the transitive uses form passives, and was puzzled by blurs into the adjective for confusion. If very or more fits, it is the adjective.

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