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Glite Dictionary
to puzzle over

to puzzle over

7 5.9
Think carefully about something because it is hard to understand
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : reflexionar sobre
  • And for centuries, historians have puzzled over the purpose of Stonehenge.
  • puzzle over that one

Examples

  • Kevin and I spent the day puzzling over the book without noticeable success.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • I have been puzzling over how it works... especially how the butterflies fly.

    The Illusionist (2006)

  • And I will tell you without making you puzzle over this for too long that the answer is yes.

  • You gave them poor devils something to puzzle over.

    Breathless (2012)

  • For many weeks, I puzzled over the meaning of this strange stone.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Just as he was puzzling over this, another message appeared on his screen.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • In bed that night, I puzzled over the phone call.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • As researchers puzzled over the newly discovered radiations, they encountered a troubling experimental fact.

    Academic text (1990)

  • For now, Kidder and Liu are puzzling over a mysterious indentation.

    Academic text (2011)

  • After hours of debate, we finally started to puzzle over the implications of the new law.

Synonyms

to grapple with
vsto puzzle over
52 6.1

To try hard to deal with a difficult problem or situation

focuses on careful thinking rather than active struggling to handle it
to ponder over
vsto puzzle over
1 4.1

To think carefully about something for a long time

thinks carefully because the matter is hard to understand or solve

Antonyms

to ignore
∞ 1.0

Choose not to pay attention to someone or something

to dismiss
332 3.0

To refuse to accept an idea or claim

How Careful

to deliberate
43 4.4
to ponder
134 4.3
to puzzle over
7 5.9
to consider
∞ 1.8

Surface Forms

puzzle over infinitive
puzzled over past
puzzled over past participle
puzzling over present participle
puzzles over third person singular

Morphology

puzzle + over

The verb 'puzzle' already means to try to work something out, and the particle 'over' adds the sense of thinking about or concerning something; combined they yield the direct meaning 'think carefully about'. This follows a common English pattern (compare 'think over', 'mull over') and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely infer the meaning.

Etymology

Puzzle over comes from the image of someone with a hard puzzle like a jigsaw or brainteaser who turns the pieces over and studies them to find where they fit. So, puzzle over means 'to think carefully about something difficult to understand or solve'.