[f. as prec. + -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. 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.
