flummox

verb flum·mox \ ˈflə-məks , -miks \

Definition of flummox

transitive verb

:confuse

He was flummoxed by the legal jargon.

a happy innocent who had been flummoxed by wily city slickers
—Andy Logan

flummox was our Word of the Day on 01/02/2011. Hear the podcast!

Examples of flummox in a Sentence

an actor who's easily flummoxed by any changes in the script

Recent Examples of flummox from the Web

In recent years, giant 'fatbergs' have been cropping up in sewers and flummoxing the city officials tasked with dealing with them.

— avery thompson, Popular Mechanics, "'Fatbergs' Are the Scourge of City Sewers," 17 Aug. 2017
But in the aftermath of Mistry’s defenestration, Tata Sons has sought to portray Mistry as a bumbling corporate naïf, dependent for ideas on a coterie of outside advisers and flummoxed by the complexities of running a large conglomerate.

— clay chandler, Fortune, "How Tata’s New Chairman Plans to Fix India’s Biggest Company," 21 July 2017
Thus, both the cameras and the announcers in the booth were flummoxed by upsets in the men and women's 200-meter finals.

— ken goe, OregonLive.com, "On televising track meets; Eugene and the 2020 Olympic Trials: Oregon track & field rundown," 27 June 2017
As a man flummoxed by circumstance and the rifts in his own marriage, Romano is deeply touching in the role.

— peter rainer, The Christian Science Monitor, "‘The Big Sick’ is best comedy of 2017 so far, and so much more," 23 June 2017
Not even hostile, just sincerely flummoxed like no one had ever refused him anything before.

— The Cut, "Is Sex in Silicon Valley As Bad As Sex on Silicon Valley?," 22 June 2017
Either of the two flame-throwers will be a substantial change of pace from OSU sophomore Bryce Fehmel, who most recently flummoxed the Tigers to continue his postseason resurgence.

— danny moran, OregonLive.com, "No. 1 Oregon State can earn College World Series finals trip with 2nd win over No. 4 LSU," 22 June 2017
The Marlins, flummoxed all afternoon by Scherzer, broke up the no-hitter in the eighth and rallied for both of their runs in a 2-1 victory over Washington.

— clark spencer, miamiherald, "The Nationals were five outs from a no-hitter. Then the Marlins found a way to win.," 21 June 2017
Nine days after his first start in more than a month, the sophomore right-hander allowed two hits and one run in eight innings, flummoxing a potent LSU lineup packed with top MLB prospects.

— scott sepich, OregonLive.com, "TV channels, radio listings for sports on the air, June 19-25: College World Series, NBA and NHL drafts, and more," 20 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'flummox.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

No one is completely sure where the word flummox comes from, but we do know that its first known use is 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."