Did you
know?

flummoxed
adjective (from the verb "to flummox" - to confuse someone so much that they don't know what to do)

- to be bewildered, perplexed

(Oxford English Dictionary)

---
Flummoxed politicians

When Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway transportation machine, applied for a permit to erect a wind turbine on his three-acre island on Long Island Sound (called North Dumpling), local zoning authorities denied his request.

"I declared my independence," recalls Kamen. He filed papers to secede from the United States and issued his own currency (the Dumpling, which is engraved with the likenesses of Kamen's friends and family). He also generously offered "foreign aid" to the United States and asked to sign a non-aggression pact with the state of New Hampshire.

The flummoxed local political bosses quickly learned a lesson that Kamen's parents learned decades earlier: They rolled their eyes and let him have his way. North Dumpling now gets its power from a wind turbine.

Etymology: The origin is unknown, but is thought to come from a British dialect, perhaps from Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, southern Cheshire or Sheffield.

---
SYNONYMS

confused, baffled, bewildered, discombobulated, mystified, nonplussed, stumped

---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation

"They were flummoxed by the order to completely re-do the presentation."