Baffle

And ſhould the Parlament, endu'd vvith Legiſlative povver, make our Lavvs, and be after to diſpute them peice-meale vvith the reaſon, conſcience, humour, paſſion, fanſie, folly, obſtinacy, or other ends of one man, vvhoſe ſole vvord and vvill ſhall baffle and unmake vvhat all the vviſdom of a Parlement hath bin deliberatly framing, vvhat a ridiculous and contemptible thing a Parlament vvould ſoon be, […]

It vvas the very Courſe vvhich our Saviour [Jesus] himſelf took, vvhen the Devil plied him vvith Temptation: Still he had a ſuitable Scripture ready to repel and baffle them all, one after another; every pertinent Text urged home being a direct Stab to a Temptation.

It hath always been my way to baffle reproach with silence; though I cannot but observe the disingenuous proceedings of this gentleman, who is not content to asperse my writings, but hath wounded, through my sides, those eminent and worthy citizens, Mr. John Morphew, and Mr. Bernard Lintot.

Chartophylax then obſerved hovv fatally human ſagacity vvas ſometimes baffled, and hovv often the moſt valuable diſcoveries are made by chance.

The meek intelligence of thoſe dear eyes / (Bleſt be the art that can immortalize, / The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim / To quench it) here ſhines on me ſtill the ſame.

Mrs. Felix Lorraine looked at her noble relatives, and shrugged up her shoulders with an air which baffleth all description.

He is […] forgiving to a degree that might lead us to call him easy, but for a consistency that never seemeth to yield to any influence of season, events, or hopes. Truly, this is a man that baffleth all my knowledge!

Long before he [William III of England] reached manhood he knew how to keep secrets, how to baffle curiosity by dry and guarded answers, how to conceal all passions under the same show of grave tranquillity.

Elizabeth [I], it might have been thought, would have had no particular objection; but Elizabeth had aims of her own which baffled calculation.

Yet, more Love's forceful course / Confirms my faithful will and confidence, / The more thou bafflest me with coy pretence.

It may have been the failure of Christianity to emancipate itself from expiatory theories of moral responsibility, guilt, innocence, reward, punishment, and the rest of it, that baffled its intention of changing the world.

[S]he besought them to bring her a live sphinx; and therefore they went to the menageries, and then to the forests and the desert places, and yet could find no sphinx. […] But they were not men that it is easy to baffle, and at last they found a sphinx in a desert at evening watching a ruined temple whose gods she had eaten hundreds of years ago when her hunger was on her.

"She [the ship] behaves nobly," observed the captain, stepping aft to the binnacle, and looking at the compass; "if the wind does not baffle us, we shall weather."

Fleet ships encountering on the high seas / Who speak, and unto eternity diverge— / These hailed each other, poised on the loud surge / Of one of Mrs. Grundy's Tuesday teas, / Nor trimmed one sail to baffle the driving breeze.

[H]ee [the king] vvas never ſvvorn to his ovvn particular conſcience and reaſon, but to our conditions as a free people; vvhich requir'd him to give us ſuch Lavvs as our ſelves ſhall chooſe. This the Scots could bring him to, and vvould not be baffl'd vvith the pretence of a Coronation Oath, after that Epiſcopacy had for many yeares bin ſettl'd there.

And yet they cry out ſacrilege, that men vvill not be gulld and baffl'd the tenth of thir eſtates by giving credit to frivolous pretences of divine right.

[A]t laſt he vvas driven to confeſs the Truth, told the horrid Bargain he had made, and hovv the Devil often promis'd him a Covv, but never gave him one, except that ſeveral Times in the Morning early he found a Covv put into his Yard, but it alvvays prov'd to belong to ſome of his Neighbours: […] if he [the Devil] had not had a Mind to cheat or baffle the poor Man, vvhat need he have taken a Covv ſo near home?

[T]he Lavv of God pardoning and unpardoning hath bin ſhamefully branded, for vvant of heed in gloſſing, to have eluded and baffl'd out, all Faith and chaſtity from the marriagebed of that holy ſeed, vvith politick and judicial adulteries.

[A]ll VVriters of Ethics have uniformly declared no ſervility to be ſo ſordid and intolerable, as that of the vicious man to his Paſſions and Luſts. Top the latter, he confronts the miſcheif of being a ſlave to every man elſe; for ſuch he certainly is, vvhom the fear of ſuffering can baffle out of any thing he thinks juſt and honeſt.

Parents vvill not be baffled out of their children by impudent gentlemen; nor is it fit they ſhould.

The ship, baffling with the winds, moved not an inch.

[He] let the Pandours baffle about, checked only by the fortified Towns, and more and more submerge the Hill Country.

But if any one of thoſe ſharp arrovvs of divine truth vvhich are ſhot from heaven, vvhich thou haſt heard of, ſeen, and received into thy breſt, vvhich thou canſt vvith no colour of reaſon deny, or repel, and vvhich vvith much adoe thou baffleſt and ſhuffleſt off to a kind of cavilling unbelief; I ſay, if but one of them had vvell fixed it ſelfe upon thy heart and conſcience, it vvould move thee to the ſpeedy thoughts and eſſays of repentance; […]

Were it not strangely absurd and unhandsome to say, I cannot wait on God, because I must speak with a friend; […] [I]s it then just or seemly, by such comparisons to disparage his favor, by such pretences to baffle with his goodness?

sound baffle

Tanker trucks use baffles to keep the liquids inside from sloshing around.

As to Nonplus an Ariſtotle vvould look, not only like a Slur to a particular Philoſopher, but like a Baffle to Philoſophy it ſelf.

And after all, for greater infamie, / He by the heeles him hung vpon a tree, / And baffuld ſo, that all vvhich paſſed by, / The picture of his puniſhment might ſee, / And by the like enſample vvarned bee, / Hovv euer they through treaſon doe treſpaſſe.

Then have the coppies of it paſted on poſts, / Like Phamplet titles that ſue to be ſold; / Have his diſgrace talk for Tobacco ſhops, / His picture bafful'd.

'Tis, they ſay, a Maxim among the Svvordsmen, That he that has once been baffled, is ever after an incompetent Challenger: […]

After this Antiochus remembring hovv often he had been baffled and diſgraced by Simon, the Father of Hyrcanus, reſolved novv to be revenged on the Son; […]

Should we (as you) borrow all out of others, and gather nothing of our selues, our names would be baffuld on euerie booke-sellers stall, and not a chandler's mustard-pot would wipe his mouth with our wast paper.

A Religion, that baffoules all temporall Princes, making them ſtand bare-foote at their great Biſhops gate, lye at his foote, holde his ſtirrup, yea their ovvne Crovvnes at his Curteſie, exempting all their Eccleſiaſticall Subiects from their iuriſdiction, and (vvhen they liſt) all the reſt from their allegeance.

[U]nder colour of ſome particular Author that does not pleaſe you, you run dovvn and baffle that ſerious buſineſs of Regeneration, Juſtification, Sanctification, Election, Vocation, Adoption, vvhich the Apoſtle Paul hath, beſide others, vvith ſo much labour illuſtrated and diſtinguiſh'd; […]

I muſt reſolve to fight this confounded Beau, vvill tell all the Tovvn, vvhat Men he baffles, as vvell as vvhat VVomen he lies vvith.

Novv that you intend to trail a Pike, and make Profeſſion of Arms, let me give you this Caveat, that nothing muſt be more precious to you than your Reputation. […] If you get but once handſomely off, you are made ever after; for you vvill be free from all Baffles and Affronts.