bemusement

be·muse

B0182500 (bĭ-myo͞oz′)tr.v. be·mused, be·mus·ing, be·mus·es 1. To cause to be bewildered; confuse.2. To occupy the attention of; absorb or engross: The book bemused him for days.3. Usage Problem To cause to be mildly or wryly amused: "Unlike William McKinley, whose priggishness bemused him, Roosevelt had no compunctions about smoking cigars in public" (Joseph Conlin).

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be·mus′ed·ly (-myo͞o′zĭd-lē) adv.be·muse′ment n.Usage Note: The word bemused is sometimes used to mean "amused, especially when finding something wryly funny," as in The stream of jokes from the comedian left the audience bemused, with some breaking out into guffaws. Most of the Usage Panel does not like this usage, with 78 percent rejecting this sentence in our 2005 survey. By contrast, 84 percent accepted a sentence in which bemused means "confused."

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

bemusement - confusion resulting from failure to understandbafflement, befuddlement, bewilderment, mystification, obfuscation, puzzlementconfusedness, disarray, mental confusion, muddiness, confusion - a mental state characterized by a lack of clear and orderly thought and behavior; "a confusion of impressions"

bemusement

noun puzzlement, surprise, confusion, uncertainty, amazement, questioning, bewilderment, perplexity, bafflement, mystification, stupefaction, befuddlement A look of bemusement mixed with alarm spread across their faces.

bemusement

nounThe condition of being so lost in solitary thought as to be unaware of one's surroundings:absent-mindedness, abstraction, brown study, daydreaming, muse, reverie, study, trance.

Translations

absorbement