ppl. a. [f. prec. + -ED1.]
1. Lost in pathless places, at a loss for one’s way; fig. confused mentally.
1685. Dryden, Lucretius, II. 11 (R.). Human-kind Bewilder’d in the maze of life, and blind.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 142. We rambled about for seven hours thus bewildred.
1762. Beattie, Triumph Mel., xli. The bewilder’d soul.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. xv. Should each bewildered stranger call To friendly feast and lighted hall.
1843. J. Martineau, Chr. Life (1857), 384. The new generation may grow up with bewildered vision.
2. transf. Pathless, trackless, mazy; utterly confused or tangled.
1729. M. Browne, Pisc. Eclog., VII. (1773), 96. And oft would to bewilder’d shades retire.
1820. Keats, Hyperion, III. 9. Wandering in vain about bewilder’d shores.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes, i. 10. A bewildered heap of allegories.
