puzzle

The state of feeling confused or mystified because one cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; bewilderment, confusion; (countable) often in in a puzzle: an instance of this.

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.

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.

A thing such as a complicated matter or a problem which is difficult to make sense of or understand; also, a person who is difficult to make sense of or understand; an enigma.

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.

Often preceded by a descriptive word: a game or toy, or a problem, requiring some effort to complete or work out, which is intended as a pastime and/or to test one's mental ability.

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.

Short for puzzle-peg (“a piece of wood secured under a dog's jaw to keep the dog's nose away from the ground so that it uses the scent in the air to track its quarry, and to prevent the dog from tearing the quarry once found”).

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.

To cause (oneself or someone, or their mind, etc.) to feel confused or mystified because they cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; to confuse, to mystify, to perplex.

Mens daily occaſions for themſelves or friends, and the neceſities of common life, require the doing of a thouſand things vvithin the compaſs of a fevv dayes, for vvhich it vvould puzzle the beſt Textman that liveth; readily to bethink himself of a ſentence in the Bible, clear enough to ſatisfie a ſcrupulous conſcience of the lavvfulneſs and expediency of vvhat he is about to do; […]

[H]e has a very ſmart VVit, and is a very ſhrevvd Diſputant in thoſe Points himſelf ſeems moſt puzzled in, and is therein very dexterous in puzzling others, if they be not thorough-paced Speculators in thoſe great Theories.

To use (one's brain or mind) to try to work out a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; also, to try to work out (a complicated matter, a problem, etc.).

VVhich puſles the braine, and doth confound the ſence, / VVhich makes vs rather beare thoſe euilles vve haue, / Than flie to others that vve knovv knot of.

VVhat haſt thou to do vvith Thought? Mind thy ovvn Buſineſs, and never puzzle thy Noddle vvith Thought.

To (intentionally) make (something) complicated or confused, and so difficult to resolve or understand; to confuse, to complicate.

[T]hey are theſe Talkative Fools, vvhoſe Religion is only in vvord, and are debauched and vain in their Converſation, that (being ſo much admitted into the fellovv-ſhip of the godly) do puzzle the VVorld, blemiſh Chriſtianity, and grieve the ſincere.

[H]e vvas heard vvith great attention, though his Parts vvere moſt prevalent in puzzling and perplexing that diſcourſe he meant to croſs.

To cause (someone) to not know what to do due to some problem, situation, etc.; to bewilder, to confound, to perplex.

I ſay there is no darkneſſe but ignorance, in vvhich thou art more puzel'd then the Ægyptians in their fogge.

[W]e found ground at forty fadomes, many Snakes ſvvimming about our ſhips, vvhich (vvith the vvaters changing colour) aſſured us vve vvere neere the ſhoare (the laſt ſtorme had puzled us) […]

Often followed by about, over, or upon: to feel confused or mystified because one cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.