flummoxed

English

Etymology

flummox +‎ -ed

Adjective

flummoxed (comparative more flummoxed, superlative most flummoxed)

1. Confused, perplexed or flustered.

   Synonyms: bewildered, mystified, perplexed, stumped; see also Thesaurus:confused

   He's good at what he knows, but he gets completely flummoxed when new problems arise.

   • 2019, Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie, Trapeze, page 85:

     ‘Itʼs amazing, these bosses call all the shots but are flummoxed by the smallest technological advances.’

   • 2022 April 21, Roger Cohen, “Macron and Le Pen Trade Punches in Pivotal Debate on France’s Future”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     “What would you have done?” he demanded more than once of Ms. Le Pen, without ever getting a direct response. She did not seem to have one and looked flummoxed.

Translations

totally confused or puzzled

• Catalan: perplex
• Dutch: verbluft (nl), verbijsterd (nl)
• French: déconcerté (fr)
• German: verblüfft (de), verwirrt (de)
• Italian: sconcertato (it)
• Maori: pōnitiniti
• Portuguese: desconcertado (pt)
• Russian: смущённый (ru) (smuščónnyj)
• Spanish: desconcertado (es)

Verb

flummoxed

1. simple past and past participle of flummox

Derived terms

• kerflummoxed