puzzle – English noun declension

English noun forms of puzzle

Noun: puzzle
Singularpuzzle
Pluralpuzzles

Sample Sentences

  • Certainly, Men in Great Fortunes, are ſtrangers to themſelues, and vvhile they are in the puſle of buſineſſe, they haue no time to tend their Health, either of Body, or Minde. [1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Great Place”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC, pages 55–56:]
  • She stopt, felt herself getting into a puzzle, and could not be prevailed on to add another word, not by dint of several minutes of supplication and waiting. [1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter III, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 66:]
  • My lady—your ladyship. It sounds very strange, and as if it was not natural. I never thought of it before; but, now you have named it, I am all in a puzzle. [1851–1853, [Elizabeth Gaskell], “‘Your Ladyship’”, in Cranford. […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1853, →OCLC, page 145:]
  • Where he went after he left the house is a puzzle.
  • To the laſt puzzle propounded, vvhether theſe Archei [vital forces believed to be responsible for alchemical reactions within living bodies] be ſo many ſprigs of the common Soul of the vvorld, or particular ſubſiſtencies of themſelves; there is no great inconvenience in acknovvledging that it may be either vvay. [1655, Henry More, chapter XI, in An Antidote against Atheism, or, An Appeal to the Naturall Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God. … The Second Edition Corrected and Enlarged: With an Appendix thereunto Annexed., 2nd edition, London: […] J. Flesher, and are to be sold by William Morden […], →OCLC, book III, page 376:]
  • About the painting I have a great puzzle in my head between [George] Vertue, Mr. D'Urry, and Bishop Tanner [Thomas Tanner?]. [1760 September 2 (date written), Thomas Gray, “[Essays.] Letter to [Horace] Walpole on His ‘Lives of the Painters’.”, in Edmund Gosse, editor, The Works of Thomas Gray in Prose and Verse. […], volume I (Poems, Journals, and Essays), London: Macmillan and Co., published 1884, →OCLC, page 306:]
  • He is a puzzle to the servants, who are fearful of being too obsequious, or not civil enough, to him. [1833, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “Poor Relations”, in The Last Essays of Elia. […], London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 11:]
  • He went away on the word, leaving me with a new mystery to think of, a new puzzle to grapple with. [1897, Bram Stoker, “Dr. Seward’s Diary—continued”, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC, chapter XIII, page 182:]
  • Woman's heart and mind are insoluble puzzles to the male. Murder might be condoned or explained, and yet some smaller offence might rankle. [1924 November 8, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Illustrious Client”, in The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, published June 1927, →OCLC, pages 21–22:]
  • crossword puzzle    jigsaw puzzle
  • Upon the whole, he [a person in a cave] looked not unlike that ingenious puzzle, called a reel in a bottle, the marvel of children, (and of some grown people too, myself for one,) who can neither comprehend the mystery how it has got in, or how it is to be taken out. [1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], “More Explanation”, in Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 248:]
  • Among other monstrosities in this lumber room was a largeish black japanned box, excellently and ingeniously made some sixty or seventy years ago, and fitted with every imaginable object. […] Everything was perfectly new, and the whole thing, when shut up, was as big as a small, but fat week-end bag. And inside, it fitted together like a puzzle. [1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter XI, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC, pages 241–242:]
  • So I ſent for a carpenter, on the receipt of your recipe, and had a large Puzzle of Oak made for him [a dog], after the pattern of thoſe vvorn by the Squire's Pointers; and I have found it anſvver prodigiouſly. [1791, Caleb Cassock [pseudonym], “Letter the First”, in Geoffrey Gambado [pseudonym; Henry Bunbury], Annals of Horsemanship: Containing Accounts of Accidental Experiments, and Experimental Accidents, both Successful and Unsuccessful: […], London: […] W[illiam] Dickinson, […]; S. Hooper, […]; and J. Archer, and R. White, […], →OCLC, pages 1–2:]

Etymology

1. The verb, of uncertain origin, is attested first. Apparently cognate with Scots pousle, pouzle, poozle (“to trifle; poke or potter around aimlessly; search about with uncertainty”), Saterland Frisian puzelje (“to work hard and continuously”), West Frisian peuzelje (“to trifle, work slowly; eat slowly and daintifully, snack”), Dutch peuzelen (“to perform insignificant work, dawdle; pick at, eat with relish in small pieces, snack”), German Low German pusseln (“to tinker, fiddle; trifle”) and pöseln (“to work hard, toil; to slave away; suffer at work; work slowly and ineffectively”), German posseln, bosseln (“to perform trivial work, tinker”), Danish pusle (“to busy oneself with light work or chores; to be occupied with a task requiring ingenuity, care, and patience; to tinker”), Swedish pyssla (“to do light work; tinker; putter or potter around”), Norwegian Nynorsk pusla, putla (“to potter about”), Faroese putla (“to trifle; potter about; do one's work slowly; be dilatory”), Faroese puss (“damage, trick”).
2. * An early form of the word is pusle, which is similar to Old English puslian (“to pick out the best bits, carefully select, cull”). It is possible that the meaning of the word evolved from “to pick out the best bits”, to “to think long and carefully in bewilderment while choosing what to pick out”, to “to think long and carefully in bewilderment”. However, there is no evidence in Middle English or modern English of any intermediate words with these meanings.
3. * Alternatively, it has been suggested that the word is from pose (“(obsolete) to interrogate, question”) + -le (frequentative suffix). However, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that early forms of the word are all spelled with -u-, and that a sound change in Middle English from ō to u “is not easily accounted for”.
4. * Finally, it has been suggested that the past participle form of the word is attested by Middle English poselet. This is thought to be unlikely by the Oxford English Dictionary as poselet is attested in only one quotation with the meaning “jostled, pushed”, which does not have any connection with the current senses of the word.
5. The noun appears to be derived from the verb. See: Faroese Nouns 'putla', Old English Nouns 'puslian'.

Verbs referencing "puzzle"

Polish Nouns puzzle, German Nouns Puzzle, Dutch Nouns puzzel, Danish Nouns puslespil, Russian Nouns пазл, Ukrainian Nouns пазл, Catalan Nouns puzle, Norwegian Bokmål Nouns puslespill, Norwegian Nynorsk Nouns puslespel, Irish Nouns puzal.