puzzle

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To baffle or confuse mentally by presenting or being a difficult problem or matter.
2. v. To clarify or solve (something confusing) by reasoning or study: He puzzled out the significance of the statement.
3. v. To be perplexed.
4. v. To ponder over a problem in an effort to solve or understand it.
5. n. Something, such as a game, toy, or problem, that requires ingenuity and often persistence in solving or assembling.
6. n. Something that baffles or confuses.
7. n. The condition of being perplexed; bewilderment.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A difficult question or problem; specifically, a riddle, or a toy or contrivance which is designed to try one's ingenuity.
2. n. Embarrassment; perplexity: as, to be in a puzzle, or in a state of puzzle.
3. To perplex or pose with or as with difficult points, problems, or questions; put to a stand; gravel.
4. To entangle; make intricate.
5. To resolve or discover by long cogitation or careful investigation; make out by mental labor; cogitate: with out.
6. Synonyms Perplex, etc. (see embarrass), pose, nonplus, bewilder, stagger.
7. To be bewildered; be perplexed or posed.

Wiktionary

1. n. Anything that is difficult to understand or make sense of.
2. n. A game for one person that is more or less difficult to work out or complete.
3. n. A crossword puzzle.
4. n. A jigsaw puzzle.
5. n. A riddle.
6. v. transitive To perplex (someone).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Something which perplexes or embarrasses; especially, a toy or a problem contrived for testing ingenuity; also, something exhibiting marvelous skill in making.
2. n. The state of being puzzled; perplexity.
3. v. To perplex; to confuse; to embarrass; to put to a stand; to nonplus.
4. v. To make intricate; to entangle.
5. v. To solve by ingenuity, as a puzzle; -- followed by out.
6. v. To be bewildered, or perplexed.
7. v. To work, as at a puzzle.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. be a mystery or bewildering to
2. n. a game that tests your ingenuity
3. n. a particularly baffling problem that is said to have a correct solution
4. v. be uncertain about; think about without fully understanding or being able to decide