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Bewilderment   Listen
noun
Bewilderment  n.  
1.
The state of being bewildered.
2.
A bewildering tangle or confusion. "He... soon lost all traces of it amid bewilderment of tree trunks and underbrush."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Bewilderment" Quotes from Famous Books



... a President who had declared that peace was his passion, these belligerent words caused some bewilderment but, on the whole, very considerable satisfaction in Republican circles, where the possibility of rupture had been freely discussed. The people of the Southwest took the President at his word and looked forward with enthusiasm to a war which would surely overthrow Spanish rule ...
— Jefferson and his Colleagues - A Chronicle of the Virginia Dynasty, Volume 15 In The - Chronicles Of America Series • Allen Johnson

... to compare this spirit of detachment from the personal and party elements of the situation, this accessibility to every call of patriotic duty, this self-possession under conditions calculated to hinder calm deliberation, with the hesitations, the bewilderment, the conflicting decisions of the Entente leaders and their impatience of unauthorized initiative and offers of private assistance. Outsiders are not wanted. Their money is not rejected, but nothing else that they tender ...
— England and Germany • Emile Joseph Dillon

... a murmur in the ranks, but bewilderment deprived us of the power of taking concerted action. A sudden fear seized me—could last night's celebrations have been the ...
— Combed Out • Fritz August Voigt

... look of bewilderment I could upon the spur of the moment, and then, waving my arm impatiently at our helmsman to sheer still closer alongside the brig, whose quarter was now fair abreast of our fore-rigging, ...
— The Pirate Slaver - A Story of the West African Coast • Harry Collingwood

... poured upon him by degrees until they had ended by flooding him in torrents. He could read, at last, that page in effect so brilliant, divine its hidden meaning. The purely physical innocence of Paquita, the bewilderment of her joy, certain words, obscure at first, but now clear, which had escaped her in the midst of that joy, all proved to him that he had posed for another person. As no social corruption was unknown to him, as he professed a complete indifference towards all perversities, ...
— The Thirteen • Honore de Balzac

... The entire bewilderment, the amaze, apprehension, confusion with which Dr Rider entered the room from which this scrap of conversation reached him, is indescribable. A dreadful sense that something was about to happen seized the young man's mind with an indescribable curiosity. He paused ...
— The Doctor's Family • Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant

... heard the flood of questions in amazement, and answered them quite frankly; and the keen young newspaper man read much between the answers that showed the loneliness of her life, her bewilderment in her new surroundings, and he congratulated himself that he would have an article for his Sunday paper that not only would be filled with facts but also ...
— Drusilla with a Million • Elizabeth Cooper

... Joyce's bewilderment increased. What did it all mean? Was he play-acting? Why did they both treat her so? The stranger's punctilious politeness had flattered her at first, but, since the mocking tone stole into his voice she felt that she hated him, and looked round hoping to escape. ...
— A Book of Quaker Saints • Lucy Violet Hodgkin

... in bewilderment. He had said that Angela had been brought back from the Silas P. Young. Then it wasn't that escape that had sent him up here in bitter, revengeful mood. He began to touch the outer edge of ...
— Colorado Jim • George Goodchild

... this was uttered made me feel that she was in earnest. Indeed I was already beginning to realize that this young woman was an enigma, her moods changing so rapidly as to keep me in a state of constant bewilderment—one moment frank, outspoken, friendly; the next hiding her real self behind a barrier of cold reserve which I seemed helpless to penetrate. Yet this very changeableness was attractive, keeping my mind constantly on the alert, ...
— Love Under Fire • Randall Parrish

... she seemed to have lost the clue. She experienced a season of bewilderment. Was Cousin Chilian meaning she should take Mr. Saltonstall for a lover? He surely gave him opportunities he had given no other. Sometimes he excused himself and went out. There were some difficulties with ...
— A Little Girl in Old Salem • Amanda Minnie Douglas

... children to sink or swim in this sea of race prejudice. They neither shield nor explain, but thrust them forth grimly into school or street and let them learn as they may from brutal fact. Out of this may come strength, poise, self-dependence, and out of it, too, may come bewilderment, cringing deception, and self-distrust. It is, all said, a brutal, unfair method, and in its way it is as bad as shielding and indulgence. Why not, rather, face the facts and tell the truth? Your child ...
— Darkwater - Voices From Within The Veil • W. E. B. Du Bois

... great bewilderment he endeavored still to entertain Miss Carleton, though it is to be feared she found him rather absent-minded. He was passing out of the dining-room in a brown study when some one touched his arm. He ...
— That Mainwaring Affair • Maynard Barbour

... swarm of youngsters puzzled on the day of publication with no little bewilderment and fury. They had refused to allow any of their number to act as policeman, and had secretly been making merry over the embarrassment of their late persecutors, and wondering whatever they would be able to say for their ...
— The Fifth Form at Saint Dominic's - A School Story • Talbot Baines Reed

... evident bewilderment, but she nodded. "Yes," she said, "of course, I knew it would come. Everybody knows by now that you have ...
— Masters of the Wheat-Lands • Harold Bindloss

... reform, she could never be to him again what she had been. There Was a faint gleam of moonlight stealing into the familiar room, and he could just distinguish her form lying on the white-covered sofa. With an overwhelming sense of wretchedness and bewilderment he fell upon his knees beside her, and burying his face in his hands, cried again, ...
— Brought Home • Hesba Stretton

... uncertainty, incertitude, doubt; doubtfulness &c. adj.; dubiety, dubitation[obs3], dubitancy|, dubitousness[obs3]. hesitation, suspense; perplexity, embarrassment, dilemma, bewilderment; timidity &c. (fear) 860; vacillation &c. 605; diaporesis[obs3], indetermination. vagueness &c. adj.; haze, fog; obscurity &c. (darkness) 421; ambiguity &c. (double meaning) 520; contingency, dependence, dependency, double contingency, possibility upon a possibility; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... astonishment) that Peter Chynoweth was a liar. But scarcely had I reached my post that night when, turning, I descried a radiance as of a lantern, following me at some fifty paces. On the instant I gripped my poignard and stepped behind a boulder. The light drew nearer, came, and passed me. To my bewilderment it was no lantern, but an open flame, running close along the turf and too low for anyone to be carrying it: nor was the motion that of a light which a man carries. Moreover, though it passed me within half-a-dozen yards and lit up ...
— Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... brought face to face with the capitalist, it was futile to attempt to unravel the enigma. How he longed in his bewilderment for the sympathy and counsel of a fresh perspective! But on Tiny's discretion he could place no reliance and even had he been able to do so, everything within him shrank from the disloyalty of voicing evil against his friends until he had proof. Delight was also an impossible confidant because ...
— Flood Tide • Sara Ware Bassett

... for atheist. It has become a real word for a very real state of mind, conscious of many possibilities beyond that of the atheist, and not excluding that of the polytheist. It is no longer a question of defining or denying a simple central power, but of balancing the brain in a bewilderment of new powers which seem to overlap and might even conflict. Nature herself has become unnatural. The wind is blowing from the other side of the desert, not now with noble truism "There is no God but God," but rather with that ...
— The New Jerusalem • G. K. Chesterton

... repeal of the Missouri restriction as a God-send to their cause, had summoned the manhood of the country to their help, a powerful impulse would have been given in the right direction. But in the general confusion and bewilderment of the times many of them lost their way, and were found mustering with the mongrel hordes of Know-Nothingism, and under captains who were utterly unworthy to lead them. Instead of inflexibly maintaining their ground and beckoning the people to come up and possess ...
— Political Recollections - 1840 to 1872 • George W. Julian

... my word," cried that young lady, "'t is cousin Tom!" and as I stood gaping at her like a fool, in helpless bewilderment, she came to me and gave me her hand with the ...
— A Soldier of Virginia • Burton Egbert Stevenson

... looking at Bat in bewilderment. It was plain that he had not expected to find Psmith entertaining ...
— Psmith, Journalist • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse

... to her bosom. Ida looked up into her face in bewilderment. Was it nature that prompted her ...
— Jack's Ward • Horatio Alger, Jr.

... reputation and his pictures, that the great artist in him was more than a name to her. She listened to him sympathetically, and looked at the window closely, as though trying to follow all he had been saying. But it struck Mrs. Stuart that there was often a bewilderment in her manner which had been strange to it on her first entrance into London. Those strong emphatic ways Kendal had first noticed in her were less frequent. Sometimes she struck Mrs. Stuart as having the air of a half-blindfold person trying to find her way ...
— Miss Bretherton • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... stifled its possibility of growth by being content with what was more material; but at last it had dawned on him, and he stood now on the threshold of a world that was as new as it was bewildering. Yet, for all its bewilderment, he saw at a glance how real it was, and how true. It was the light of the sun that shone there which made those shadows which till now he had thought to be in themselves ...
— Daisy's Aunt • E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson

... the sailor threw it on his shoulder, and Harry, with a feeling of bewilderment, followed him along the gangway to the shore. Here he ...
— In the Reign of Terror - The Adventures of a Westminster Boy • G. A. Henty

... thought it beneath the dignity of a man to be of any other profession than that of a sailor. They disdained showing soft emotion, and if they shook hands it was done in an apologetic way. The gospel of pity did not enter into their creed. Learning, as they called it, was a bewilderment to them; and yet some of those eccentric, half-savage beings could be entrusted with valuable property, and the negotiation of business involving most intricate handling. Sometimes in the settlement of knotty questions they used their ...
— Windjammers and Sea Tramps • Walter Runciman

... recovered sufficiently from their terror and bewilderment to advance, in order to succour those who were suffering, and hardly had they done so when the sound of drums beating the call to arms was heard, and a few moments later it was whispered from one to another that the Twenty-ninth Regiment was forming in ranks ...
— Under the Liberty Tree - A Story of The 'Boston Massacre' • James Otis

... ever leaving them with my consent, a moment's respite, to think about their courses or their end. It ill becomes one of you, to attempt to put himself on an equality with me, for feats useful to the kingdom of Darkness. For what is Tobacco but one of my meanest instruments, to carry bewilderment into the brain? And what is the kingdom of Mammon, but a branch of my vast domain? Yea, if I were to recite the ties which I have on the subjects of Mammon and Pride—yea, and on the subjects of Asmodeus, Belphegor, and Hypocrisy—no man would tarry ...
— The Sleeping Bard - or, Visions of the World, Death, and Hell • Ellis Wynne

... were already throwing off the warps, and ten minutes later she passed out through the dock-gates, and soon anchored in the middle of the river. Tom had been on board too many ships at Portsmouth to feel any of that bewilderment common to emigrants starting on their first voyage. He saw that at present everyone was too busy to attend to him, and so he put his portmanteau down by the bulwark forward, and leaning on the ...
— In The Heart Of The Rockies • G. A. Henty

... Jove!' Potts cried. But the moment after this disengaged ejaculation, he was taken with a bewilderment. 'At the Opera?' ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... gloom that seemed to lie just beyond the rafters. He sat thus silent and serious a little while, but finally squared himself around in his chair and looked the little boy full in the face. The old man's countenance expressed a curious mixture of sorrow and bewilderment. Catching the child by the coat-sleeve, Uncle Remus pulled him gently to ...
— Nights With Uncle Remus - Myths and Legends of the Old Plantation • Joel Chandler Harris

... time on what did not at once attract her spirit, except of necessity. And yet she genuinely delighted in the small events of a day such as please and awe children. And the reason they loved her so was because they knew she brought the same guileless point of view to solve their bewilderment from larger experience. ...
— Perpetual Light • William Rose Benet

... insomnia, and fits of black impatience with myself and others,—self chiefly.... I am heartily sick of my dyspeptic bewilderment ...
— Why Worry? • George Lincoln Walton, M.D.

... aid, and, giving a few orders in German, helped Lord Northmoor to carry the inanimate form into the hotel, a low building of stone, with a high-pitched shingle roof. Constance followed in a bewilderment of fright, together with Lenchen, the Swiss maid, who, as well as could be made out, was declaring that a Swiss bearer never made ...
— That Stick • Charlotte M. Yonge

... come off, and with a promptitude, a fulness, with which the latter's young imagination had scarcely reckoned. His impression fairly shook him and he throbbed with the excitement of such deep soundings and such strange confidences. He throbbed indeed with the conflict of his feelings—bewilderment and recognition and alarm, enjoyment and protest and assent, all commingled with tenderness (and a kind of shame in the participation) for the sores and bruises exhibited by so fine a creature, and with a sense of ...
— The Lesson of the Master • Henry James

... he returned, "for I know what causes it." And then he went away and left her, still seeming highly amused at her bewilderment. ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces in the Red Cross • Edith Van Dyne

... Dora recovered from the bewilderment occasioned by the confusion of the post office, they found themselves in one of the many leathern mail bags rumbling Eastward. As it was perfectly dark they could not see their companions, so listened to the whispering and rustling that went ...
— Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag VI - An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, Etc. • Louisa M. Alcott

... other the months of vacation wore away; then the question was, what to do next? Her nature demanded constant action. She was far ahead of others of her own age in the matter of studies, and Mrs. Barton was in real bewilderment as to what to do with her youngest child. A phrenologist, who was a keen observer of child nature, was visiting the Bartons at that time, and Clara, who had the mumps and was lying on the lounge in the adjoining room, ...
— Ten American Girls From History • Kate Dickinson Sweetser

... three remaining savages in bewilderment sprang to their feet. McConnel instantly seizing the two other guns, shot one through the heart, and inflicted a terrible wound upon the other. He fell to the ground bellowing loudly. Soon however he regained his feet and hobbled off into the woods as fast as possible. The only remaining ...
— Daniel Boone - The Pioneer of Kentucky • John S. C. Abbott

... to halt, and down went the Sergeant's big brakes. Both teams came to a stand-still, and we told the Sergeant the news. Bewilderment, surprise, joy, followed each other on the old Sergeant's countenance. He turned his heavy team about, and promised to reach Camp MacDowell as soon as the animals could make it. At Florence, we left the stage, and went to the little tavern once more; the stage route did not lie in our direction, ...
— Vanished Arizona - Recollections of the Army Life by a New England Woman • Martha Summerhayes

... Israel was not to be gainsaid. He went out to them himself, and said, "Come, let bygones be bygones. It is the feast of our nation. Let us eat and drink together." So, partly by his importunity, but mainly in their bewilderment, yet against all rule and custom, they suffered themselves ...
— The Scapegoat • Hall Caine

... In her mind's bewilderment of distress she caught at the name; it was the property in which Severance had lost his money; and she recalled ugly rumors that, before, had not affected her. Now that his money was gone, they attached to themselves a newer significance, accusing and ...
— Stories from Everybody's Magazine • 1910 issues of Everybody's Magazine

... merchants of Calcutta at fabulous prices; not fighting over again the battle of Lakhairi, but rather discussing the relative merits of the slopes of the Alps and the cliffs of the Atlantic; admitting sorrowfully the merits of the intermediate vineyards, or trilling to the bewilderment of their country-born comrades, light little French songs of love ...
— The Fall of the Moghul Empire of Hindustan • H. G. Keene

... In his bewilderment the one whom Tom had named Sambo glared around him. His eyes gleamed with a phosphorescence like that which one sees on the water on a lowering night. What Reade did not know was that this black man possessed eyes that were a little keener in the ...
— The Young Engineers on the Gulf - The Dread Mystery of the Million Dollar Breakwater • H. Irving Hancock

... yet conscious of his condition. He saw, dimly and obscurely indeed, but yet with awful certainty, that his ties to earth had been suddenly sundered, and that there only remained to him now a brief and troubled interval of mental bewilderment and bodily distress, to last for a few more hours or days, and then he must appear before that dread tribunal where his last account was to be rendered; and the vast work of preparation for the solemn judgment was yet to be made. How ...
— History of King Charles II of England • Jacob Abbott

... beam-ends, and the wheels uppermost. The first thing necessary was to discharge cargo; this we quickly effected, as there were doors in front and behind, and the numerous packages were soon piled upon the wayside. No sooner was the van empty, than my dogs, who had been watching the operation in bewilderment, jumped in, and no inducement would persuade them to quit the comfortable vehicle, which they supposed had been specially cleared for their convenience; the doors were accordingly shut, and they were locked up. We now passed ropes beneath the van, and secured the ...
— Cyprus, as I Saw it in 1879 • Sir Samuel W. Baker

... signals indicated a bewilderment as to our whereabouts. By this time they must have known ashore that we were not anchored inside the bar; and out to sea they must have known we had not foundered in the surf, and also by this time they had probably discovered that we were not ...
— Wide Courses • James Brendan Connolly

... slaughter-house and my conversation with the governor. And so I dragged through till the evening and then, feeling gloomy and out of sorts, I went to see Maria Victorovna. I told her about my visit to the governor and she looked at me in bewilderment, as if she did not believe me, and suddenly she began to laugh merrily, heartily, stridently, as only ...
— The House with the Mezzanine and Other Stories • Anton Tchekoff

... Eleanor looked round in bewilderment. Seeing Lady Perry, she was struck with an idea, crossed the room, and joined the ex-Premier's smiling, pleasant wife. Lady Perry had noticed enough to be au fait with the situation at a word. She rose and went to where Medland was now leaning listlessly against the wall. ...
— Half a Hero - A Novel • Anthony Hope

... nothing. He stood there, scowling down at my companion in silence. And I, too, I must admit, turned upon Hartnett with a stare of bewilderment. His accusation of Margot had brought a sense of horror to me. I had expected almost anything from him, even to a mad accusation of Strange himself. But I had hardly foreseen this cold ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science September 1930 • Various

... over to him in a state of the most complete bewilderment, and took from him the tempting bun that he held out to her. As she did so she had a good look at him. Certainly it was not the same person who had called ...
— Little Folks (October 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... the Channel Islands. Then he cut away the boot from my swollen ankle, with a steady but careful touch, speaking now and then a word of encouragement, as if I were a child whom he was tending. His mother stood by, looking on helplessly and in bewilderment, for he had not had time to explain ...
— The Doctor's Dilemma • Hesba Stretton

... listener. Mrs Nasmyth listened with vain efforts not to let her face betray her utter bewilderment at the whole proceeding, only assenting briefly when Mr Slowcome interrupted the reading, now and then, ...
— Janet's Love and Service • Margaret M Robertson

... ladies, seated on the floor drinking tea, rose quickly and made low formal bows. The five refugees from the storm returned the bows with some bewilderment. ...
— The Motor Maids in Fair Japan • Katherine Stokes

... murmuring laughter. Some of those who knew Myles nodded to him, and two or three spoke to him as he stood waiting, whilst the groom went forward to speak to the Earl; though what they said and what he answered, Myles, in his bewilderment and ...
— Men of Iron • Ernie Howard Pyle

... cried Charlotte, as Amy was turning to the door, and the next moment she led in little Marianne Dixon, clinging to her hand. Amy kissed her, and held her fast in her arms, and Marianne looked up, consoled in her bewilderment, by the greeting of her ...
— The Heir of Redclyffe • Charlotte M. Yonge

... the life about her with wonder and bewilderment. It was so pleasant, so full of beauty and variety; yet things were said and done that shocked her. There was nothing in her sister's own behaviour to alarm her modesty; but to hear her sister talk of other women's conduct outraged all her ideas of decency and virtue. If there were really such wickedness ...
— London Pride - Or When the World Was Younger • M. E. Braddon

... bewilderment of the Leopard Woman the pace of the safari now slackened. Heretofore the marches had been stretched to the limit of endurance; now the day's journey was as leisurely as that of a sportsman's caravan. It started at daybreak, to be sure, but it ended at noon, unless ...
— The Leopard Woman • Stewart Edward White et al

... show you the law," one is reported to have said, meaning that the litigant with the longest purse was pretty certain to win his case in the long run. They delighted in long arguments, and highly appreciated bewilderment in pleadings; "Dinna be brief," cried one judge when an advocate modestly asked to be briefly heard in a case in which he appeared as junior counsel. But the tendency to delay cases in the old Courts stretched beyond all reasonable lengths and became a scandal to the country. It was not a ...
— Law and Laughter • George Alexander Morton

... door at the sound of Bright's voice, and stood gazing at the visitors with an air of bewilderment. "You prings me goot news, eh, Bright?" he enquired. "Yes, I am shure you prings me ...
— The Von Toodleburgs - Or, The History of a Very Distinguished Family • F. Colburn Adams

... hundred yards he ran before he would consent to halt. Then I sprang from the saddle and ran to his head. His eyes met mine. Soft and brown, and larger than ever, they gazed imploringly. Pain and bewilderment, strange, wistful pleading, but all the old love and trust, were there as I threw my arms about his neck and bowed his head upon my breast. I could not bear to meet his eyes. I could not look into them and read there the deadly pain and faintness that ...
— Starlight Ranch - and Other Stories of Army Life on the Frontier • Charles King

... Mr. Carlyle in a state of puzzled bewilderment. Was he to believe Afy, or was he to believe the bygone assertion ...
— East Lynne • Mrs. Henry Wood

... not resign himself without a struggle to this state of anonymous ambiguity. His bewilderment was painful to witness. "If it were my name," he said, speaking slowly and not very clearly, "surely it would bring back the first name. I try to recall the word, and the effort is painful, and doesn't succeed." His hostess seemed much interested, ...
— Somehow Good • William de Morgan

... Mexican foreman, whom I had met at the rodeo about a month before. We then resumed our seats, but the corporal and his wife remained standing, and with an elegant command of his native tongue Don Mateo informed the couple of our mission. They looked at each other in bewilderment. Tears came into the wife's eyes. For a moment I pitied her. Indeed, the pathetic was not lacking. But the hearty corporal reminded his better half that her parents, in his interests, had once been asked for her hand under ...
— A Texas Matchmaker • Andy Adams

... sat a lady whose tears had long since dried that she had shed when she had bid good-bye to thirty. She was—begging the lady's pardon—a trifle spare, and a trifle pale, and though in a manner well enough dressed her clothes had an air of bewilderment, of general irresolution, as though each article was uncertain in its mind as to whether it purposed to remain where it had been put, or casually wander away on blind and ...
— No. 13 Washington Square • Leroy Scott

... Company to take possession of the government. We seek not, like John to conquer—we colonize. You may be one of us; by accepting Young America's offering you may be as independent as a colored preacher on Sunday.' The chief gazed in bewilderment—his ...
— The Adventures of My Cousin Smooth • Timothy Templeton

... him in such utter bewilderment and surprise that he felt somewhat afraid of what she might say; he therefore ...
— Wife in Name Only • Charlotte M. Braeme (Bertha M. Clay)

... bewilderment. "Is it you? When did you come? I—I never knew. You said nothing in your letter ...
— A Houseful of Girls • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... to be drifting away into the realms of sleep, and all around her were confusion and bewilderment. The window, across which the woodbine was growing, changed places with the door; the floor rose up and bowed to her, while the room was full of faces, beckoning to and smiling upon her. Faces like the one she knew so well, the pale ...
— Tracy Park • Mary Jane Holmes

... He rubbed his single eye clear of any deceiving film and looked again. Still he could not believe what it saw. And then a voice at his elbow—the voice of Dyke, who had elected to sail with him—assured him that he was not singular in his bewilderment. ...
— Captain Blood • Rafael Sabatini

... mean?" asked Winnie, staring open-eyed; but the mischievous boy had vanished and left her alone in her bewilderment. ...
— Aunt Judith - The Story of a Loving Life • Grace Beaumont

... into a chair and a smile broke over his face, in which, to her further bewilderment, she recognized ...
— The Prodigal Father • J. Storer Clouston

... can only, I think be explained by this hypothesis. She was "dazed and bewildered," say some of the historians, evidently not knowing how to interpret so strange an interruption to her narrative; but there is no other sign of bewilderment; her mind was always clear and her intelligence complete. Granting that the whole story was boldly ironical, its object is very apparent. Honour forbade her to betray the King's secret, and she had expressly said she would not do so. But her story seems to say—since you will ...
— Jeanne d'Arc - Her Life And Death • Mrs.(Margaret) Oliphant

... the forerunner of an embryological period in which men's hopes and interest centred round the study of development. "With bewilderment we saw ourselves transported to the strange soil of a new world," wrote Pander, and many shared his hopeful enthusiasm. K. E. von Baer's Entwickelungsgeschichte was by far the greatest product of this time, but it stands in a measure apart; we have in ...
— Form and Function - A Contribution to the History of Animal Morphology • E. S. (Edward Stuart) Russell

... hear of leaving without the trunk. Shortly afterward their telegram came back undelivered from the Carrie Wentworth Inn in Chicago, with the notation, "Party not registered." That threw them into a state of bewilderment, but Gladys, after thinking hard and long about the matter, remarked that the Glow- worm had a habit of breaking down at inconvenient times and that probably accounted for our not having ...
— The Campfire Girls Go Motoring • Hildegard G. Frey

... his meaning,—and, apparently, judging from his next words, I looked something of the bewilderment ...
— The Beetle - A Mystery • Richard Marsh

... turned to her astonished women, who had followed with their eyes the flight of the prophetess, but who now directed their dark eyes with an expression of awe and bewilderment to their young mistress, of whom the fortune-teller had said she would one day be Queen of France. Josephine endeavored to overthrow the faith of her swarthy servants in the fortune-teller, and, by pointing to the ridiculous prophecy in reference to herself, ...
— The Empress Josephine • Louise Muhlbach

... accustomed roads are all broken up, our conventional ways of thinking and feeling, and the sure sequences on which we have depended vanish in a night. It is experiences like these which make the soul cry out with the psalmist, in bewilderment and fear,—"My foot slippeth!" His customary foothold had given way. The ground was shaking beneath him. The ...
— Defenders of Democracy • Militia of Mercy

... silver and fine glasses with her own hands before leaving the table; she was able to repeat her favorite recipes correctly; she carved gracefully, as a lady ought, and gave due attention to her guests. Beyond these duties she was in a state of bewilderment. What had happened to Bessie, and what new mischief Jack was incubating were puzzles she ...
— The House that Jill Built - after Jack's had proved a failure • E. C. Gardner

... sank to the middle of the class before the recitation was over, much to the bewilderment of the single-minded teacher. By the morrow she was at the bottom of the line and so far across the outer confines of Coventry that she never got back. That was our way of looking at ...
— When Grandmamma Was New - The Story of a Virginia Childhood • Marion Harland

... stand, and drew up a stool. The minutes ticked themselves away upon Davy's big, white-faced clock which hung against the wall. Eight, eight thirty, eight forty-five! Then David sat up and stared with wide-opened eyes right at Janet. A moment of bewilderment shook his awakening senses; then he ...
— Janet of the Dunes • Harriet T. Comstock

... took on a sudden blank look of bewilderment, which raised a belated hope in Helen's broken heart, and set ...
— The Law-Breakers • Ridgwell Cullum

... his sedan chair at the end of the platform his face wore an expression of bewilderment, but only for a moment. Then he turned to the commanding officer, and saying "I am ready," walked steadily down the lines of saluting troops while the bands all played "Home, Sweet Home." Just as quietly ...
— Sir Robert Hart - The Romance of a Great Career, 2nd Edition • Juliet Bredon

... been in great bewilderment, but that luckily his master stood there too. The man's look of appeal was comical, going from one to another. Rollo was looking at girths and buckles, and did not seem to hear. Wych Hazel waited—a ...
— Wych Hazel • Susan and Anna Warner

... Israelites there was open rejoicing, because he had been their enemy and their prophets had foretold that death was near to him. They gave it out that he had been smitten of their God, which caused the Egyptians to hate them more than ever. There was doubt, too, and bewilderment in Egypt, for though his proclamation disinheriting the Prince Seti had been published abroad, the people, and especially those who dwelt in the south, could not understand why this should have been done over ...
— Moon of Israel • H. Rider Haggard

... now, and I looked at my hostess in a little bewilderment. She murmured, "I suppose the joke is that he had befriended one man at the ...
— Through the Eye of the Needle - A Romance • W. D. Howells

... splutter of German to the neighbours on my right. After that a tremendous soiree at South Kensington, from which I escaped as soon as I could, and got home at midnight. There is a confounded Lord Mayor's dinner this evening ("The usual turtle and speeches to the infinite bewilderment and delight of the foreigners," August 6), and to-morrow a dinner at the Physiological Society. But I have got off the Kew party, and mean to go quietly down to the Spottiswoodes [i.e. at Sevenoaks] on Saturday afternoon, and get out of the way of everything ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 2 • Leonard Huxley

... quitted the museum. My uncle and I returned to the narrow turret-room in which he had taken up his abode for the last seventy years and more. This room of itself was a sight to see, and I was slightly faint and dizzy from bewilderment at what I had already beheld. "You see, my boy," said the old man again, "I have not lied to you; and when you are once established here, and open these rooms to your visitors, all the barons, and counts, and princes will stare at them with open mouth, and will cajole you, flatter you, ...
— Dr. Dumany's Wife • Mr Jkai

... Lady Eversleigh. The novelty of her position gave her no embarrassment; the splendour around her charmed and delighted her sense of the beautiful, but it caused her no bewilderment; it did not dazzle her unaccustomed eyes. She received her husband's nephew with the friendly, yet dignified, bearing which it was fitting Sir Oswald's wife should display towards his kinsman; and the scrutinizing eyes of the young man sought in vain to detect ...
— Run to Earth - A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... roll that guy!" he muttered in helpless bewilderment. "I was a-goin' to roll him, and now look here wot he has ...
— The Mucker • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... name Fleur answered not, but for very bewilderment of joy overturned the wine-cup before him with his knife. When somewhat come to himself, he drew from his stores a golden cup and offered it to the hostess, saying, 'Accept this cup as payment, both for the wine which has been spilt ...
— Fleur and Blanchefleur • Mrs. Leighton

... Isaac Johnson, Junior?" asked some one, slapping the happy Ike on the shoulder as the crowd burst into a loud guffaw. Jim's head was sadly bemuddled, and for a time he gazed upon the faces about him in bewilderment. Then a light broke in upon his mind, and with a "Whoo-ee!" he said, "No!" Ike grinned a defiant grin at him, and led the way to the nearest place where he and his ...
— The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories • Paul Laurence Dunbar

... Monthly Repository, the kindly paper by Allan Cunningham in the Athenaeum, and, in Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, the succinctly expressed impression of either an indolent or an incapable reviewer: "Pauline; a Fragment of a Confession; a piece of pure bewilderment"—a "criticism" which anticipated and thus prevented the insertion of a highly favourable review which ...
— Life of Robert Browning • William Sharp

... two proved to be only assault and battery, though for three days and nights it was a toss of the coin whether they would not have to answer for a graver charge. Peter's joy had soon proved premature and the doctor's smile faded in unexpected bewilderment. The sick man did not improve in the least. Delirium followed hard upon deadly stupor and there seemed no rousing him ...
— Captivating Mary Carstairs • Henry Sydnor Harrison

... came a quizzical stare that slowly changed to an intense look of bewilderment. Gradually ...
— Nedra • George Barr McCutcheon

... after, the door slowly opened its upper half, and Karen's wrinkled face and white cap and red shortgown were before them. Winthrop did not speak. Karen looked in bewilderment; then her ...
— Hills of the Shatemuc • Susan Warner

... behind the roofs roused her. She gazed at its disappearing rim in bewilderment, for the moment not realising. Then the sense of bodily pain dawned on her and ...
— The Workingman's Paradise - An Australian Labour Novel • John Miller

... but I had formed no close friendships with any of them. Then, when I was nine years old, my mother decided to enter me in the public school, so all at once I found myself thrown among a crowd of boys of all sizes and kinds; some of them seemed to me like savages. I shall never forget the bewilderment, the pain, the heart-sickness, of that first day at school. I seemed to be the only stranger in the place; every other boy seemed to know every other boy. I was fortunate enough, however, to be assigned to a teacher who knew me; my mother ...
— The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man • James Weldon Johnson

... shame at finding herself the core of the silence—feeling is if her poor little spirit stood there naked to the scoffs and jeers around—could not recall a word of the answer given in the Catechism. So, in her bewilderment, she fell back on her common sense and experience, which, she ought to have known, had nothing to do ...
— Alec Forbes of Howglen • George MacDonald

... was aware, and fiercely demanded: "Where are the wretches who have done this? No single arm could have knocked down Bela. He has been set upon—beaten with clubs, and—" Here his thought was caught up by another, and that one so fearsome and unsettling that bewilderment again followed rage, and with the look of a haunted spirit, he demanded in a voice made low by awe and dread of its own sound, "AND WHERE WAS I, WHEN ALL ...
— Dark Hollow • Anna Katharine Green

... It iss not to die we woult want you. But I thought my man said it wass just for the month you kem, and—my Good!—I haf let your roomss for the day after to-morrow," and her face had lost its usual smile and was full of distress and bewilderment. ...
— Pearl of Pearl Island • John Oxenham

... boldly up the steps, pressed the bell-button; laid hold of the door-knob, and entered into a vestibule as dark as his bewilderment and as empty as the palm of his hand; proving that the young gentleman of fashion had experienced no difficulty in penetrating farther into fastnesses of this singular establishment. And reflecting that where ...
— The Day of Days - An Extravaganza • Louis Joseph Vance

... the jam, there was a moment of breathless bewilderment; a frantic disentangling of themselves from the pushing, shoving crowd; a hurried, frightened survey of the sea of unfamiliar faces around them, and then straight into the arms of the smiling college President ...
— The Lilac Lady • Ruth Alberta Brown

... in great confusion and bewilderment, assembled at eleven o'clock. Lucien immediately communicated the degree transferring their session to St. Cloud. This cut off all debate. The decree was perfectly legal. There could therefore be no legal pretext for opposition. ...
— Napoleon Bonaparte • John S. C. Abbott

... conditions favoring English progress at its beginning: we have a people, instinct with the love of freedom and power, subjected to law by desire for victory in war, and kept obedient by bewilderment of machinery. Forced to reconcile themselves to Norman usurpation of all power in church and state, they devote themselves to the acquisition of wealth, and, because of their insular position and small territory, end in commercial ...
— A Comparative Study of the Negro Problem - The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 4 • Charles C. Cook

... what did You make women out of?" Mr. Vandeford said in all reverence and bewilderment, as he took the "white flame" to his breast and drew it past her lips until it burned away all the chaff in his soul and established ...
— Blue-grass and Broadway • Maria Thompson Daviess

... lost in a maze of bewilderment. She was conscious of the strange woman in black clutching her father's arm and calling him George, while he strove ...
— The Witch of Salem - or Credulity Run Mad • John R. Musick

... of life in the backwoods, none are more affecting than those of lost children. In the forests which hemmed in the homes and fields of the settlers, the little ones often strayed away, or in their bewilderment failed to find a path back to the cabin they had left among the stumps of the clearing, or the leafless trunks of the deadening. In 1804, two children, Lydia and Matilda Osborn, eleven and seven years old, went to fetch the cows from their pasture a mile from ...
— Stories Of Ohio - 1897 • William Dean Howells

... Noctes can make him. Lockhart gives a delightful account of his first visit to Walter Scott in Castle Street—his first visit, mind you. He is shown into the drawing-room and finds Mrs. Scott, disposed, a la Madame Recamier, on a sofa. His acuteness comes to the aid of his bewilderment, and he is quick to extend himself in similar fashion upon the opposite sofa. In the dining-room he was much more at his ease. Before the end of the meal he had his host as "Wattie" and his hostess as "Charlotte." Next day he wrote to Scott to ask what ...
— In a Green Shade - A Country Commentary • Maurice Hewlett

... in a state of indescribable bewilderment. But, unmanned as he was, he called the next day on the, to him, spurious Duchess of Hamptonshire. At first she was alarmed at his statement, then cold, then she was won over by his condition to give confidence for confidence. She showed him a letter which had been found among the papers ...
— A Group of Noble Dames • Thomas Hardy

... in the deepest bewilderment, but he carefully concealed his perplexity, and looked down upon the ground as if pondering profoundly, whereas he really had not got the least idea what to do. There was silence. Every one ...
— Wood Magic - A Fable • Richard Jefferies

... thing had caught its breath. And all the swaying life and color on the floor stopped as suddenly. Barbara had picked the moment that brought Ina Vandeman and her husband squarely facing us. After the first instant's bewilderment, Vandeman and his floor managers couldn't fail to realize that they were being held up by an outsider; with Barbara in full sight up here by the orchestra, they must know who was doing it. I wondered not to have Vandeman in ...
— The Million-Dollar Suitcase • Alice MacGowan

... it from her, gazing in utter bewilderment as he gathered in its contents. Was it a fresh letter, or—his face became whiter than the dowager's. In her reckless passion she avowed what she had done—the letter ...
— Elster's Folly • Mrs. Henry Wood

... after him in bewilderment. So he spent every night in the grounds, or somewhere about the house? The knowledge gave her a queer sense of ...
— The Angel of Terror • Edgar Wallace

... tracks as quietly as though in her sheltered home across the water. As she moved she sang snatches of song in a clear, bird-like voice; and when her eyes suddenly fell upon the three strange figures in the path, there was no fear in their violet depths, only a sort of startled bewilderment, instantly followed by an eagerness ...
— French and English - A Story of the Struggle in America • Evelyn Everett-Green

... to find some comfort there, but there was none. Ethel's discomfiture and bewilderment had passed and she was putting an unusually acute mind on the situation. She understood perfectly that it looked to Miss Gertrude as if Dr. Watkins had made so sure that she returned his affection that he had gone about talking of it to ...
— Ethel Morton's Holidays • Mabell S. C. Smith

... hour comes just before dawn. When Buchanan recommended in the message of December, 1857, the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution, Senator Douglas, to the bewilderment of thousands, openly denounced the President, and in the most effective speech of his life led a secession of the Northwestern Democrats from the dominant Southern party. He showed that the application of his popular sovereignty doctrine in Kansas would solve ...
— Expansion and Conflict • William E. Dodd

... yet with that peculiar quality of aloofness only recognisable in the elect,—a very appreciable charm. Julian found his undoubted admiration only increased by his closer scrutiny. Nevertheless, as he watched her, there was a slightly puzzled frown upon his forehead, a sense of something like bewilderment mingled with those other feelings. His mother, who had turned to speak to the object of his attentions, beckoned him, and he crossed the room at ...
— The Devil's Paw • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... in such a maze of suspense and bewilderment for a month, dear Journal, that I have neglected you; to-night I'll recall, if I can, some of my lost days. No, I can't. It makes no diference; they were only days of trouble. I am perplexed to death to know the result of the baron's letter. He wrote, of course, and urged that Mr. Mordecai ...
— Leah Mordecai • Mrs. Belle Kendrick Abbott

... through the air, with an awe-inspiring roar. A wicked snarl from behind him at the same moment warned him against stepping back, and he braced himself unconsciously to meet the impact. But the animal, whatever it was, fell short of him in its spring, and to his utter bewilderment he ...
— The Path to Honour • Sydney C. Grier

... of the clearings, when Dick suddenly clapped down upon his face among the brambles, and began to crawl slowly backward towards the shelter of the grove. Matcham, in great bewilderment, for he could see no reason for this flight, still imitated his companion's course; and it was not until they had gained the harbour of a thicket that he turned ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 8 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... laid down his plane, and went out of the workshop, leaving Rogers standing there in bewilderment. But he was not gone many minutes. He returned with a letter ...
— Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood • George MacDonald

... reached up and found the next one above,—and then for the first time realized that his eyes had been closed all the time he was feeling along the cold surface of the rock. He opened them in a start of actual bewilderment. The blackish mass rose almost sheer above him, like a vast wall upon which the moon cast a dull, murky light. He closed his eyes again and leaned heavily against the rock. His heart began to beat horribly. He felt his courage slipping; he wondered if he had the strength, the nerve to ...
— Quill's Window • George Barr McCutcheon

... him, but stood gazing around the room in wild bewilderment. How came she standing there? By what spirit of love or hate had she been ...
— The Old Countess; or, The Two Proposals • Ann S. Stephens

... the house," prompted Mrs. Jenkins, her quick, maternal eye noting the bewilderment and disapproval ...
— Amarilly of Clothes-line Alley • Belle K. Maniates

... recovered from their first bewilderment, and, as if this show of helplessness on the part of his companions nerved him up, Ralph still preserved ...
— Ralph Gurney's Oil Speculation • James Otis

... alive, and she turned her head toward him, and lo it was the Friend; and his heart rose to his mouth for wonder and fear and desire. For now he doubted whether the other folk were aught save shows and shadows, and she the Goddess who had fashioned them out of nothing for his bewilderment, ...
— The Roots of the Mountains • William Morris

... recovered herself from any shock which she might have sustained a few moments before, and it was in her usual manner that she asked this question. Her face expressed the mingled bewilderment and curiosity of a puzzled child, rather than the serious ...
— Lady Audley's Secret • Mary Elizabeth Braddon

... he? What was here on all sides? It could not be the cellar, as he went in one direction or the other toward the walls, and he stood at last resting, in the most utter bewilderment of mind and helplessness of body possible to conceive, while a curious feeling of awe began to ...
— Cutlass and Cudgel • George Manville Fenn

... nomination-day. He did not say a word, but looked like the rosebud which dangled in the button-hole of his frock-coat. The aldermen and town-councillors were what is sometimes emphatically styled flabbergasted; they were speechless from bewilderment. 'Mr. De Crecy will go for the ballot,' said the secretary of the Treasury, with an audacious eye and a demure look, 'and for Total and Immediate, if you press him hard; but don't, if you can help it, because he has an uncle, an old county member, who has prejudices, and ...
— Coningsby • Benjamin Disraeli

... something desperate. His first blunder had been to hand, or rather lift, Chrissy into the chaise instead of Corrie, at starting from their own door. He repeated the unaccountable blunder at the County Rooms, which compelled him to take Chrissy into the ball-room; and while Chrissy was still gazing in bewilderment and admiration at the evergreens and chalked floors, and talking, laughing couples, Mrs. Spottiswoode could scarcely believe her ears when she distinctly heard Bourhope ask Chrissy's hand for the first dance, saying that he would ...
— Girlhood and Womanhood - The Story of some Fortunes and Misfortunes • Sarah Tytler

... shaking her head in bewilderment. Then she turned to Heliodora with a shrug, and said, as the tears ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... portion of the trunk— "nothing here to make my room pretty, and cozy, and home-like." Then she shut the trunk again and locked it, and going up to where the three girls stood, gazing at her in bewilderment and some alarm, she unfastened her purse and turned all its contents into ...
— A Sweet Girl Graduate • Mrs. L.T. Meade

... It went over Tom Lindsay in center field, and Tom ran and ran. The ball went so far up that Tom had time to cover the ground, but he could not judge it. He ran round in a little circle, with hands up in bewilderment. And when the ball dropped it hit him on the head ...
— The Redheaded Outfield and Other Baseball Stories • Zane Grey

... reach that is a piece of steel for being drawn toward a powerful magnet. Preyer says that it is years before voluntary inhibitions of grasping become possible. The child has not the necessary brain machinery. Commands and sparring of the hands create bewilderment and tend to build up a barrier between mother and child. Instead of doing such thing, simply put high out of reach and sight whatever the child ...
— Study of Child Life • Marion Foster Washburne

... curious effect on the patient on the settee. Despite the doctor's restraining hand, he struggled into a sitting position, staring in bewilderment at the shabby old man who had gone straight to the telephone and lifted the receiver. And well might Desmond stare; for here was Mr. John Hill, the odd man, talking on ...
— Okewood of the Secret Service • Valentine Williams

... wanderings, adventures, successes, and passions, the fever of all which was still upon him, when, with the same headlong recklessness, he rushed into this marriage, it can but little surprise us that, in the space of one short year, he should not have been able to recover all at once from his bewilderment, or to settle down into that tame level of conduct which the close observers of his every action required. As well might it be expected that a ...
— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli

... his, and none might take her from him. His thoughts maddened him. He groaned aloud and dropped his face in his hands on the stone ledge of the window, and the moonlight touched him, a strange figure of desperate longings, desperate bewilderment and rebellion and pain. He shook to the primal passions of love and hate that tore him,—love for one, hate for all that had gone to make the conditions of his life what they must be; according to the measure of his untamed strength he suffered, in fierce revolt ...
— Nicanor - Teller of Tales - A Story of Roman Britain • C. Bryson Taylor

... rudiments of imagination; I must not attempt to adorn this sober page with an attempted reproduction of the scene. Mortal language reeled and cracked under the strain of giving form to her admiration; but it was so honest and well meant that it could not but give pleasure even in the midst of bewilderment. My father bowed his head with a painful smile; but I dare say it did him good when ...
— Hawthorne and His Circle • Julian Hawthorne

... the priest and the old woman alternately, with an air of bewilderment which, had the priest been a man of much observation, ...
— Phelim O'toole's Courtship and Other Stories • William Carleton

... reticence of both of them was merciful; to heap this crowning burden upon Chief Mern's bewilderment in regard to the actions of a trusted employee would have disqualified him mentally for other cases which ...
— Joan of Arc of the North Woods • Holman Day

... Bewilderment, shot with a gleam of half-incredulous understanding, seemed to transfix him. We stood a long moment, our eyes challenging each other, exchanging their countersign of faith and steadfastness. Then slowly he held out his hand. I laid ...
— Spanish Doubloons • Camilla Kenyon

... of trouble and bewilderment came over me, as I gave a quick glance round at the bare loft, with its cob-webbed windows and eager little crowd of boys, all expectant and flushed with ...
— Burr Junior • G. Manville Fenn

... her black gown and mysterious creaking sound, as of tight under-wear strained to breaking point, she held it out toward Walden, who had durng her last oratorical outburst unconsciously put his hand to his head in a daze of bewilderment. ...
— God's Good Man • Marie Corelli

... a loud voice some question or other—in the first bewilderment of waking he does not remember exactly what—and the man made no reply. The atmosphere and feeling of true nightmare lay horribly about him, making movement and speech both difficult. At first, indeed, ...
— The Wendigo • Algernon Blackwood



Words linked to "Bewilderment" :   bemusement, bafflement, muddiness, befuddlement, puzzlement, disarray, confusedness, confusion, obfuscation, bewilder, mental confusion



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