mystify

1 be a mystery or bewildering to; "This beats me!"; "Got me--I don't know the answer!"; "a vexing problem"; "This question really stuck me" [syn: perplex, vex, stick, get, puzzle, baffle, beat, pose, bewilder, flummox, stupefy, nonplus, gravel, amaze, dumbfound]

2 make mysterious; "mystify the story" [ant: demystify] [also: mystified]

English

Etymology

From mystifier

Verb

1. to thoroughly confuse, befuddle, or bewilder

   • Solar eclipses continued to mystify ancient humans for thousands of years.

addle, amaze, around the bush, baffle, bamboozle, beat, beat about, beg the question, bewilder, bicker, boggle, buffalo, cavil, choplogic, complicate, confound, confuse, corrupt, daze, dodge, equivocate, evade, evade the issue, fence, floor, flummox, fool, fuddle, garble, get, hedge, hoax, humbug, jumble, keep in suspense, lick, make unintelligible, maze, misadvise, misdirect, miseducate, misguide, misinform, misinstruct, mislead, misteach, mix up, muddle, nitpick, nonplus, obfuscate, obscure, palter, parry, perplex, pervert, pick nits, prevaricate, pussyfoot, puzzle, quibble, scramble, shadow, shift, shuffle, shy, sidestep, split hairs, stick, stump, tergiversate, throw