v. [f. BE- 2 + WILDER, to lead one astray, refl. to stray, to wander (found 1613 and common in 17th c.).]
1. lit. ‘To lose in pathless places, to confound for want of a plain road.’ J. arch.
1685. [see next].
1752. Johnson, Rambl., No. 195, ¶ 3. He was so much bewildered in the enormous extent of the town.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), I. 36. An unfrequented wood, in which they might probably be bewildered till night.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xxviii. 282. The berg that had bewildered our helmsman.
2. fig. To confuse in mental perception, to perplex, confound; to cause mental aberration.
1684. Charnock, Attrib. God (1834), I. 37. We must come to something at length … or else be bewildered.
1709. Pope, Ess. Crit., 26. Some are bewilder’d in the maze of schools.
1742. H. Baker, Microsc., I. xv. 64. Let no … honest Observer … bewilder his Brains in following such idle Imaginations.
1823. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 372. A vain and useless faculty, given to bewilder, and not to guide us.
