Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BAF'FLE, v.t. [Fr. befler, to make, or play the fool with; Sp. befar; It. beffare, id. It coincides in origin with buffoon. In Scottish beff, baff, signifies to strike.]

To mock or elude by artifice; to elude by shifts and turns; hence to defeat, or confound; as, to baffle the designs of an enemy. Fashionable follies baffle argument. – Anon.