baffler
(ˈbæflə(r))
[f. baffle v. + -er1.]
He who or that which baffles.
† 1. A juggler, trickster; a trifler. Obs.
| 1606 Holland Sueton. 72 Fortune tellers, iuglers, and Baflors. a 1677 Barrow Serm. (1687) I. xiv. 198 To deal seriously, were to yield too much respect to such a baffler. |
2. He who or that which bewilders, confounds, defeats effort, or foils purposes.
| 1677 Plot Oxfordsh. 42 Experience, that great baffler of speculation. 1702 E. Baynard Cold Baths ii. (1709) 367 That Baffler of our Profession, the Gout. 1877 M. Arnold Emped. on Etna i. ii, Bafflers of our own prayers. |
3. A contrivance used in stoves and furnaces, for interrupting the natural course of the heated air, and causing it to pass in another direction.
| 1861 Rankine Steam Eng. 261 Large boiler flues are sometimes provided with bafflers; that is, projecting partitions which compel the hot gases to take a circuitous course. |