To confuse or perplex someone, possibly through trickery or bewildering behavior.
A blend of the prefix 'be-' and 'fiddle', with 'fiddle' originally meaning to tinker or manipulate something. The combination suggests causing confusion through manipulation or complicated actions. This appears to be a rare or archaic construction never standardly recorded.
This word perfectly captures how the English language was once wonderfully productive with 'be-' prefixes—speakers could essentially create verbs on the fly by adding 'be-' to almost any noun or verb, so 'befiddle' makes intuitive sense even if it's not in most dictionaries.
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