| 释义 |
▪ I. puzzle, n.|ˈpʌz(ə)l|
Also 7 pusle.
[Goes with puzzle v., q.v.]
1. The state of being puzzled or bewildered; bewilderment; confusion; perplexity how to act or decide.
1607–12Bacon Ess., Great Place (Arb.) 280 While they are in the pusle of businesse, they haue noe tyme to tend theire health, either of body, or minde. 1628Feltham Resolves ii. xxviii. [i. xxvii], Beyond them wee meete with nothing but the puzzle of the soul, and the dazle of the minds dimme eyes. 1697J. Sergeant Solid Philos. 59 Later Philosophers were at a great puzzle about it. 1736Butler Anal. i. vi. Wks. 1874 I. 112 The puzzle and obscurity, which must unavoidably arise from arguing upon so absurd a supposition as that of universal Necessity. 1767G. White Selborne x, Linnæus seems to be in a puzzle about his mus amphibius. 1873M. Arnold Lit. & Dogma (1876) 139 The result would be..utter puzzle and bewilderment.
2. A puzzling or perplexing question; a poser, ‘problem’, ‘enigma’.
1655H. More Antid. Ath. App. xi. §9 To the last puzzle propounded, whether these Archei [or seminal forms] be so many sprigs of the common soul of the world, or particular subsistences of themselves; there is no great inconvenience in acknowledging that it may be either way. 1760Gray Wks. (1884) I. 306 About the painting I have a great puzzle in my head between Vertue, Mr. D'Urry, and Bishop Tanner. 1823Lamb Elia, Poor Relations, He is a puzzle to the servants, who are fearful of being too obsequious, or not civil enough, to him. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. I. xxix. 397 It is a puzzle of some interest where they have retreated to.
3. a. Something contrived or made for the purpose of puzzling, or exercising one's ingenuity and patience; a toy or problem of this kind.
1814Scott Wav. lxv, He looked not unlike that ingenious puzzle, called a reel in a bottle, the marvel of children, (and of some grown people too, myself for one,) who can neither comprehend the mystery how it has got in or how it is to be taken out. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Puzzles, various articles of turnery ware and carving; dissecting maps, and pictures for children. 1859Tennyson Vivien 652 Like a puzzle chest in chest. 1872Ellacombe Ch. Bells Devon Suppl. ix. 269 At p. 34 of Devonshire Bells, I have mentioned where some ABC puzzles are to be found. 1895(title) The Puzzle Box. Containing six distinct puzzles.
b. Chinese puzzle: one of the ingenious puzzles made by the Chinese, in which the problem is to fit together the dissected pieces of a geometrical or other figure, to disentangle interlocked rings, to remove a string from an object without untying it, etc., etc. The name was app. first applied to the dissected square called tangram. Hence, fig. Any specially intricate puzzle or problem.
c1815[Pamphlet, Brit. Mus. No. 15,257 d. 18, containing upwards of 330 figures, formed out of the seven pieces of the ‘tangram’] (title) A Grand Eastern Puzzle. The following Chinese puzzle is recommended to the Nobility, Gentry, and others, being superior to any hitherto invented for the amusement of the Juvenile World. 1844Juv. Missionary Mag. L.M.S. I. 90 A real Chinese Puzzle.—Young people are fond of puzzles, and have often puzzled for hours over bits of wood called Chinese Puzzles, to very little purpose. 1859Mrs. Gatty Aunt Judy's Tales 60 Putting Chinese puzzles together into stupid patterns. 1874S. W. Williams Syllabic Dict. Chinese Lang. 987 [Ch‘i ch‘iao t‘u] The Chinese puzzle of seven pieces, the tangram. 1895Gentl. Mag. vol. 278, p. 279 The Chinese religion may be said to be a Chinese puzzle. 1906Times 1 Feb. (Article) Faulty Legislation: A statute is by this process converted into a sort of Chinese puzzle.
c. Short for puzzle-peg.
1845Youatt Dog v. 113 There was the puzzle and the check-collar [as a punishment] for killing other dogs.
4. attrib. and Comb.: attrib., ‘of a puzzle’, or appositive, ‘that is or involves a puzzle’, as puzzle-card, puzzle-map, puzzle-picture, puzzle-poetry, puzzle-question, puzzle-solving, puzzle-thing, puzzle-word, puzzle-work; in names of various mechanical contrivances presenting a puzzle or operated by some trick, as puzzle-cup, puzzle-jug, puzzle-locket, puzzle-piece (hence puzzle-piecing), puzzle-ring, puzzlewise adj. and adv.; puzzle-box, a puzzle in the form of a box; spec. in Psychol., a box with no obvious connection between its door and the opening device, designed to test the learning abilities of an animal in trying to release itself; also attrib. puzzle-lock: see quot.; puzzle-path, puzzle-walk, a maze (maze n. 4). Cf. also puzzle v. 5.
1866Trollope Claverings in Cornh. Mag. XIII. 396 Another girl..was engaged with a *puzzle-box. 1908M. F. Washburn Animal Mind x. 232 The dropping off of useless movements is further illustrated in those experiments where animals are required to work some kind of mechanism. This may be called briefly the puzzle-box method. 1921R. S. Woodworth Psychol. (1922) xiii. 308 (caption) A puzzle box. The animal must here reach his paw out between the bars and raise the latch, L. 1966H. C. Lindgren et al. Psychol. iv. 105/1 Guthrie and Horton..have used the behavior of a cat trying to escape from a puzzle box as a basis for demonstrating this concept of learning. 1970E. R. Guthrie in W. S. Sahakian Psychol. of Learning iii. 58 An account of the behavior of cats in a puzzle-box is here offered, with the hope that he [sc. the reader] will begin to see himself..in a multitude of puzzle-box situations.
1853*Puzzle-card [see conversation card].
1882Hamilton Sale Catal. No. 806 A two-handled *puzzle-cup painted with flowers.
1878*Puzzle-jug [see Caughley]. 1960R. G. Haggar Conc. Encycl. Continental Pott. & Porc. 375/1 The potter, Cornelis Hendricksz (born 1566), is stated to have made surprise jugs or puzzle jugs at Haarlem. 1980R. Rubens Cosway Miniature ii. 13 Bonnie's greatest love was old china..Regency-striped saucers and Swansea lustre frogs and puzzle jugs.
1834–6Barlow in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VIII. 316/2 The *puzzle or combination lock. 1882Sir E. Beckett in Encycl. Brit. XIV. 746 It used to be supposed that locks which could only be opened by setting a number of rings or disks to a particular combination of letters could not possibly be opened by anybody who was not in possession of the secret; and hence they were also called puzzle-locks.
1891Daily News 23 Feb. 5/5 Mr. T. had just been explaining to Mr. D. the secret of how to open a certain *puzzle locket.
1870Food Jrnl. Nov. 533 The arrangement of the different collections and classes reminding one of a *puzzle-map well shaken in a bag. 1886Kipling Lispeth in Plain Tales from Hills (1888) 5 There was an old puzzle-map of the World... She used to put it together.
1906B. L. Taylor Extra Dry 73 (caption) *Puzzle picture. Find the man who is paying for the drinks. 1929W. Faulkner Sartoris ii. vi. 151 Pieces of a patient puzzle-picture. 1978Country Life 21 Sept. 850/4 Roy Strong..treated Yeames's And when did you last see your father? as a puzzle picture which ‘leaves us to fill in what has gone before..in a highly tantalizing way’.
1879Spectator 6 Sept. 1134/2 We maintain that anything like a final reliance on anatomical *puzzle-piecing and dissection, on the part of the artist, would be a perfect illustration..of the instructive fable of the goose which was anatomised for the sake of her golden eggs.
1883Simcox Hist. Lat. Lit. II. 447 The natural interest of Ennodius lay in the direction of *puzzle poetry.
1908Daily Chron. 2 Apr. 4/7 The General Knowledge inquiry..has a tendency to produce the, rather unfair, *puzzle-question.
1877W. Jones Finger-ring 321 Some curious specimens of linked or ‘*puzzle-rings’. 1974J. Gardner Corner Men v. 36 Long slim fingers and a Greek puzzle ring.
1781J. Woodforde Diary 16 Mar. (1924) I. 304 To 7 pieces of wood, a *Puzzle thing, pd 0. 0. 6.
1914W. J. Locke Fortunate Youth xii. 163 Paul stood ruminating *puzzlewise on the audacious behest. 1950Mind LIX. 174 No doubt all this sounds stale and naïve to puzzle-wise professional philosophers.
1900Daily News 6 Dec. 4/4 Another *puzzle word competition was described at the North London Police-court.
1834Tait's Mag. I. 543/1 It is all *puzzle-work that to me.
▪ II. puzzle, v.|ˈpʌz(ə)l|
Forms: 6–7 pusle, puzzell, 7 puzel, pussell, 7–8 puzzel, puzle, 7– puzzle.
[Appears in the end of the 16th c.; the cognate puzzle n. is not known till somewhat later (a 1612), and appears from its sense to have been a derivative from the verb. Their etymology is obscure: see Note below.]
1. trans.
†a. orig. To cause (any one) to be at a loss what to do or how to turn; to embarrass with difficulties; to put to a non-plus; to perplex, bewilder, confound: said of circumstances, material obstacles, etc. Obs.
(The quotations in brackets show transition to the modern sense c.)
[a1380: see poselet.] c1595Capt. Wyatt R. Dudley's Voy. W. Ind. (Hakl. Soc.) 41 The passage verie troublesome by reason of whole trunckes and bodies of trees lyinge cross the mouth of that narrow ryver, over which men weare forced to carrie the bote upon theire shoulders by maine strength. And whilst wee weare theare pusled..Baltizar..dropped overborde with his companion and sodenlie gott into the thicketts. Ibid., Here will I leave our Captaine and his companie pusled in the bote and returne to speake of our conceipts aborde the shipp. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. iv. ii. 48 Thou art more puzel'd then the ægyptians in their fogge. 1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 34 [Certain signs] assured us we were neere the shoare (the last storme had puzled us). 1653Holcroft Procopius, Goth. Wars iv. xiv. 144 Their ships stood jumbled together like so many baskets..and thus puzzelling one another, they were the cheifest cause of the Enemies victory. 1735Somerville Chase iii. 188 The panting Throng In their own Footsteps puzzled, foil'd, and lost. [1598Barret Theor. Warres i. i. 6 Then commeth he to cast them into a ring..now there is he puzzelled. 1639N. N. tr. Du Bosq's Compl. Woman ii. 19 So many great personages were pusled in a great uncertainty. 1641Brome Jov. Crew iii. Wks. 1873 III. 405, I am pussell'd in the choice. 1697W. Dampier Voy. round World (1699) 105 A large green Turtle, with her weight and struggling, will puzzle two Men to turn her. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. iv. §2 This sort of arguments..may perhaps puzzle, but never will convince me.] b. To perplex or bewilder (the brain, mind, understanding, will, wit): in late use passing into c.
1602Shakes. Ham. iii. i. 80 (Qo. 1) A hope of something after death? Which pusles the braine and doth confound the sence. 1604Ibid. (Qo. 2), The dread of something after death..Puzels the will. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. iii. i. §7 They do far more puzzle our understandings than when we conceive them to be in God. 1666Sancroft Lex Ignea 29 All our Wit was puzzeld, and all our Industry tir'd out. 1754Sherlock Disc. (1759) I. i. 42 Reveal Mysteries merely to puzzle the Minds of Men. 1831Society I. 152 Fanny was puzzling her brain to think where she had heard the name before.
c. To perplex, put to a non-plus, or embarrass mentally, as or by a difficult problem or question; to pose. The current sense.
a1634Randolph Muse's Looking-gl. iii. iv. (R.), I very much fear there be some languages That would go near to puzzle me. 1664H. More Myst. Iniq. i. xv. 54 It would puzzle men to conceive a way of expression of sufficient honour..for such a wonder-working Priesthood. 1668― Div. Dial. (J.), A very shrewd disputant in those points is dexterous in puzzling others. c1680Beveridge Serm. (1729) I. 273, I know these words have much puzzled interpreters. 1771Junius' Lett. lxi. 319 He did it with a view to puzzle them with some perplexing questions. 1787Burns Let. to Moore 2 Aug., I..used..to puzzle Calvinism with so much heat and indiscretion, that I raised a hue and cry of heresy against me. 1807–8W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 14 Poor Will Honeycomb..even with his half century of experience, would have been puzzled to point out the humours of a lady by her prevailing colours. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xxix. (1856) 247 The disconsolate little cupola, with its flag of red bunting..may puzzle conjectures for our English brethren. 1870Emerson Soc. & Solit., Eloquence Wks. (Bohn) III. 35 Like a schoolmaster puzzled by a hard sum. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 407 Men are annoyed at what puzzles them. 1891E. Peacock N. Brendon I. 162 The question has always puzzled me.
d. refl. To bewilder or perplex oneself; to exercise oneself with difficult problems.
1691Hartcliffe Virtues Pref. 37 We are apt to puzzle our selves with obscure Marks of Grace and doubtful Signs of our good State. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 316 After they had puzzled themselves here..two or three days. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 405 When he was young he had puzzled himself with physics. 1883A. Roberts O.T. Revis. iii. 48 Many readers have doubtless puzzled themselves with the two different forms of the same word.
2. intr. (? for refl.) To be at a loss how to act or decide; to be bewildered; to be perplexed for a solution; to ponder perplexedly; to exercise oneself with the solution of a puzzle. Const. about, over, upon.
1605Camden Rem. 93, I my selfe..have pored and pusled vpon many an old Record. 1611Cotgr., Metagraboulizer, to dunce vpon, to puzzle, or (too much) beat the braines about. 1690tr. Five Lett. Inspiration 115 Contradictions which the Divines..have not been able to reconcile, after puzling about it above three thousand Years. 1742Warburton Rem. Tillard Wks. 1811 XI. 180 Our Advocate,..puzzling on between his true and false Gods, hangs, like a false teacher as he is, between heaven and earth. 1803Beddoes Hygëia ix. 205, I dare say they would puzzle long before guessing what pattern I mean to propose to them. 1833Sporting Mag. Jan. 210 Whenever the dog puzzles over the scent.
b. To search in a bewildered or perplexed way; to fumble, grope for something; to get through by perplexed searching.
1817H. T. Colebrooke Algebra, etc. 27 Which dull smatterers in algebra labor to excruciate, puzzling for it in the six-fold method of discovery there taught. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. i, Are you puzzling in your pockets to seek your only memorial among old play-bills? 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. (1856) V. xlvii. 437 After puzzling through the floes, we reached a large berg. 1884St. James' Gaz. 17 Oct. 6/1 The dogs are puzzling about for a bird or a rabbit in cover.
3. trans. To make puzzling; to complicate, involve, entangle (some matter or subject); to put into confusion, mix up, confound; to confuse or muddle (drawing). Now rare.
1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. ii. §76 His parts were most prevalent in puzzling and perplexing that discourse he meant to cross. 1650W. Brough Sacr. Princ. (1659) 63 Let me think Thou art the judg, that I may not..pervert or puzzle right. 1713Addison Cato i. i, The ways of Heaven are dark and intricate, Puzzled in mazes. 1892Harper's Mag. Oct. 702/2 He [an artist] is never obliged to resort to trick or device, or to employ meretricious effects. He never has to ‘puzzle’ bad or doubtful drawing.
4. to puzzle out: to make out by the exercise of ingenuity and patience.
1781Cowper Charity 473 While the clerk just puzzles out the psalm. 1863Hawthorne Our Old Home (1879) 221 The inscriptions..were not sufficiently legible to induce us to puzzle them out. 1889Century Mag. XXXVIII. 190 The bloodhound..can puzzle out a cold scent under the most adverse conditions.
5. Combinations of the verb-stem: ˈpuzzle-brain, (a) adj., that puzzles the brain, brain-puzzling; (b) n., one who puzzles his brain about a subject; ˈpuzzle-cap, that which puzzles the cap or the head; a cap (fig.) which bespeaks a puzzled head; ˈpuzzle-ˌmonkey, a familiar name of the Chilean tree Araucaria imbricata, from the difficulty which a monkey would have in climbing it (also called monkey-puzzle); ˈpuzzle-text, one who makes a puzzle of a scripture text; ˈpuzzle-wit a., that puzzles or would puzzle one's wit. Cf. also puzzle n. 4.
1870Thornbury Tour Eng. I. v. 108 After all these *puzzle-brain theories, the result is..no great enlargement of knowledge. 1873Blackie Self-Cult. 60 They are mostly crotchet-mongers and puzzle-brains.
1889F. E. Gretton Memory's Harkb. 231 Another *puzzle-cap to me with regard to the hunting-field. Ibid. 275 This entirely put the puzzle-cap upon him as to my actual whereabouts.
1883Mrs. J. H. Riddell Haunted River i, A garden..adorned probably by a *puzzle-monkey and a stone vase. 1885Pall Mall G. 11 Mar. 11/1 To see and paint the old forests of Araucaria imbricata, known in England as the puzzle-monkey tree, rather unreasonably, as there are no monkeys here to puzzle.
1837Gambler's Dream I. 269 The petticoat *puzzletext curtsied to her young master and retired.
1861G. J. Whyte-Melville Mkt. Harb. xviii, What is called a ‘monogram’—a thing not unlike the *puzzle-wit lock on a gate.
[Note. For the etymology of puzzle the first question is the relation of the n. and vb. The vb. has been held to be derived from the n., and the latter viewed as an aphetic form of apposal or opposal. But the chronology of the words, and still more the consideration of their sense-history, seem to make it clear that the verb came first, and that the n. was its derivative. In the light of this, the vb. has been referred to pose v.2, as a diminutive (or other derivative formation), as in suck, suckle. This is phonetically possible: cf. nuzzle from nose. But there are serious difficulties in the signification. Of the earlier sense of puzzle, as seen in the examples under 1 a above, no trace appears in the original sense of pose and appose ‘to examine by putting questions’, and it is only the derivative senses 2 of pose and 1 c of puzzle that come into contact. Thus their relation seems to be that of two words originally distinct, which (as in some other cases) have subsequently attracted each other. Puzzle was possibly the same verb of which the pa. pple. poselet occurs late in the 14th c., app. in the sense ‘bewildered, confused, confounded’, and which, riming with hoselet, i.e. hūselet, housled, was prob. pronounced |ˈpuːzəlɛt|, which would regularly give by 1600 |ˈpʊzlɛd|, later |ˈpʌzlɛd|. The non-appearance of the verb during the intervening 200 years might be owing to its being one of the colloquial words which came into literary use in the 16th c. This is however conjectural and, even if true, leaves the ulterior derivation still to seek. (A verb of similar form appears in late OE. puslian ‘to pick out best pieces of food’ (Sweet), = Du. peuzelen to pick, to piddle, LG. pöseln, pusseln, Norw. pusla; but it is difficult to see in its sense any connexion with that of ‘puzzle’.)] |