Flummox

 WORD OF THE DAY

flummox / verb / FLUM-uks

Definition
1: confuse

Examples
"It was an unfortunate ending for a defense that sputtered early as a bunch of new faces learned to adjust…. The late-season collapse, which included an inability to … consistently pressure the quarterback, flummoxed players and coaches alike."
— Jim McBride, The Boston Globe, 11 Mar. 2022

Mike Zimmer’s defense figures to flummox rookie quarterback Justin Fields just enough.
— Colleen Kane, chicagotribune.com, 20 Dec. 2021

Did You Know?
No one is completely sure where the word flummox comes from, but we do know that early use can be found in Charles Dickens' 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers and that it had become quite common in both British and American English by the end of the 19th century.
One theory expressed by some etymologists is that it was influenced by flummock, a word of English dialectical origin used to refer to a clumsy person.
This flummock may also be the source of the word lummox, which also means "a clumsy person."