Dictionary

befuddlement en · NOUN

Etymology

From befuddle + -ment.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The state of being befuddled; a feeling of being dazed and perplexed due to confusion.
   • A change came over his wind-beaten face, a slight befuddlement, the shock of some minor fact jarred loose. 1985, Don DeLillo, White Noise, Penguin, published 1986, Part I, Chapter 21, p. 162:
   • 1907, Algernon Blackwood, “Max Hensig—Bacteriologist and Murderer” Chapter 4, in The Listener and Other Stories, New York: Knopf, 1917, p. 105, It was, of course, an effect of hypnotism, he remembered thinking, vaguely through the befuddlement of his drink—this culminating effect of an evil and remorseless personality acting upon one that was diseased and extra receptive.
   • His words struck me with a sense of befuddlement that lasted until I got home.

Forms

Relateds

confusion

Synonyms

perplexity · puzzlement · bewilderment · confusion · bafflement

Translations (5)

nl verwardheid (characteristic of being befuddled) · mi pōnānātanga (characteristic of being befuddled) · nl verdwaasdheid (characteristic of being befuddled) · nl verwarring (characteristic of being befuddled) · nl verdoving (characteristic of being befuddled)