mystify

From French mystifier, from Ancient Greek μυστικός (mustikós, “secret, mystic”) + Latin -ficare.

mystify (third-person singular simple present mystifies, present participle mystifying, simple past and past participle mystified)

1. (transitive) To thoroughly confuse, befuddle, or bewilder.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 2, in The Celebrity:

     I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town. I was completely mystified at such an unusual proceeding.

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

• mysterious
• mystery
• mystic
• mystical
• mysticism
• mystique

• mystify in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• mystify in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• mystify at OneLook Dictionary Search