perplexedlyadv.
/pəˈplɛksᵻdli/, U.S. /pərˈplɛksədli/ 1. With perplexity; with uncertainty, confusion, or bewilderment. Formerly also: †in a troubled, distressed, or tormented manner (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > perplexity, bewilderment > [adverb]
confusedly1502
amazedly1561
out1585
perplexedly1587
distractedly1608
muddily1648
confoundedly1672
turbidly1728
puzzledly1870
unclearly1875
muddledly1914
distraughtly1926
wuzzily1964
1587 T. Hughes Misfortunes Arthur 2 In the third scene Gueneuora perplexedly mindeth her owne death.
a1612 W. Fowler Tarantula of Love in Wks. (1914) I. 169 Euen as the painfull pylot..Perplexedlye drawes narr and shunns the cost.
1650 Sc. Metrical Psalms cxliii. iv My spirit is therefore overwhelm'd in me, perplexedly.
1693 T. Urquhart & P. A. Motteux tr. F. Rabelais 3rd Bk. Wks. xxv. 210 Most perplexedly desirous to know the Name, of him who should be his Successor.
1844 G. S. Faber Sacred Cal. Prophecy (ed. 2) III. App. ii. 356 All persons seem to be perplexedly looking out for a crisis of some description or other.
1870 J. H. Burton Hist. Scotl. to 1688 VII. lxxv. 287 A point on which many were perplexedly meditating and doubting.
1953 K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xxiii. 219 David, lazily, perplexedly, polishing his glasses.
1990 B. Bergonzi Exploding Eng. (BNC) 130 I found students of English grappling perplexedly with Derrida.
2. In a complicated, confused, or tangled manner; intricately, ambiguously, obscurely. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > unintelligibility > depth, obscurity > [adverb]
deeplyc888
highOE
darkOE
dimly?c1225
darklyc1350
mistilya1382
murklya1400
subtlya1500
obscurelya1527
confuselya1530
diffuselyc1530
confusedly?1531
diffusedly1567
difficultly1568
indistinctly1580
enigmatically1590
perplexedly1603
subtilely1605
abstrusely1611
cloudily1651
oracularly1654
perplexly1670
reclusely1673
irrecognizably1841
Pickwickianly1866
delphically1927
the world > relative properties > order > disorder > confusion or disorder > entanglement or entangled state > complication or complexity > [adverb]
intricately1552
perplexedly1603
crinkum-crankum1656
involutely1681
complexly1813
complicatedly1883
1603 J. Florio in tr. M. de Montaigne Ess. i. To Rdr. sig. A5 If to write obscurely be perplexedly offensive, as Augustus well iudged: for our owne not to write in our owne but vnintelligible, is..surely without honor, without profit.
1625 J. Hart Anat. Urines i. ii. 16 It is a wonder to heare how doubtfully and perplexedly..they will..prate of the patients sicknesse.
1706 J. Gardiner tr. R. Rapin Of Gardens ii. 68 There Trees, confus'd and wild, perplextly stay, Observe no Order, and no Laws obey.
1796 T. Green Diary Lover of Lit. (1810) 12 The intermediate materials are capriciously divided and perplexedly arranged.
1870 S. A. Brooke Life & Lett. Frederick W. Robertson I. vii. 179 The picture painted in these letters is difficult to comprehend, and the harmonies of its colors are subtly and perplexedly involved.
1920 K. Hara Introd. Hist. Japan p. xi Professional historians..who are already perplexedly encumbered with, and engrossed by, a superfluity of overdetailed materials and a plethora of contradictory conjectures.
1992 Stud. Eng. Lit. 1500–1900 32 508 A mainstream view of Augustan culture as perplexedly divided between antithetical impulses towards order and misrule.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adv.1587