ATTACK OF THE VERBS 2012: B!

Greetings!  If you’re new to Of Cats and Laptops, this year we have a grand plan…to discover an alphabet of strong, active verbs, one week at a time!

This week, the letter B!

It’s always struck me as funny that there are so many B verbs that mean almost the same thing. Oh, of what B verbs do I speak, you ask?

Well, without further ado:

BAFFLE, BEFUDDLE, BEWILDER, BOGGLE

Put simply? There’s a lot of darn B verbs that mean “To confuse or perplex.”

What’s fun about these verbs is how they sound. There’s a humorous connotation to them. They are good for sarcasm (I know—boggles the mind, doesn’t it?).  They work well in showing someone who’s a little slow on the uptake. (The DVD player baffles Grandpa. He’s always asking, “Where does the tape go?”) It shows someone who’s having a hard time moving forward in the face of a lot of options. (She was bewildered by all the choices in the lipstick section. She pulled out three tubes, staring at them, unable to decide.)

Even if you are befuddled by the sheer number of edits you want to make in your WIP, you can’t go wrong with a good, strong verb! 

Any other "confused" B verbs out there?

Has anyone seen my steak? I'm totally baffled -- it was here a minute ago!