Link Centre Dictionary

flummox

flum·mox

UK/ˈflʌməks/ US/flʌˈmɔks/ uncommon

verb

1.

be a mystery or bewildering to

  • “This beats me!”
  • “Got me--I don”
  • “;”
  • “;”
Synonyms

Origin

Uncertain, probably risen out of a British dialect (OED finds candidate words in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, southern Cheshire, and Sheffield). The formation seems to be onomatopœic, expressive of the notion of throwing down roughly and untidily. [OED]. First use appears c. 1837 in the writings of Charles Dickens.

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

See also

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.