flummox
/ˈflʌməks/ verb
Forms flummoxes flummoxing flummoxed
- verb (transitive) To confuse; to fluster; to flabbergast.
- verb (intransitive, uncommon) To give in, to give up, to collapse.
Synonyms
perplex vex stick get puzzle mystify baffle beat pose bewilder stupefy nonplus gravel amaze dumbfound
Etymology
Uncertain, probably risen out of a British dialect (OED finds candidate words in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, southern Cheshire, and Sheffield). The formation seems to be onomatopœic, expressive of the notion of throwing down roughly and untidily. [OED]. First use appears c. 1837 in the writings of Charles Dickens.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “flummox”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details