puzzle over

phrasal verb

puzzled over; puzzling over; puzzles over

: to think or worry for a long time about (something)

He's been puzzling over what went wrong.

Examples of puzzle over in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The bigger question scientists are puzzling over, though, is why does the mystery bird exist? —Amanda Schupak, CNN Money, 29 Sep. 2025

Among the photos shared were the couple doing a word puzzle over FaceTime and posing together at an event for The Jessie Rees Foundation, an organization Darnold supports that is dedicated to helping pediatric cancer patients. —Beth Sobol, PEOPLE, 25 Sep. 2025

Future historians will puzzle over why the conflict between Israel and Palestine has been the issue, above all others, to split both US political parties in the 2020s. —Ben Smith, semafor.com, 15 Sep. 2025

So are the hurdles of getting the water out and puzzling over who owns it, who uses it and how to extract it without undue harm to nature. —Rodrique Ngowi, Fortune, 7 Sep. 2025

Rhymes for puzzle over

• carryover
• changeover
• crossover
• cutover
• flashover
• hangover
• holdover
• layover
• leftover
• makeover
• moreover
• passover