puzzle over

phrasal verb

puzzled over; puzzling over; puzzles over
: to think or worry for a long time about (something)
He's been puzzling over what went wrong.

Examples of puzzle over in a Sentence

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Although frogs today start their lives as tadpoles, researchers have puzzled over when this two-stage lifestyle evolved. Christie Wilcox, science.org, 30 Oct. 2024 Meanwhile, physicists were puzzling over a string of experiments by Heinrich Hertz and others that used light to make a current flow — a phenomenon that came to be called the photoelectric effect. Charlie Wood, Quanta Magazine, 30 Oct. 2024 Political scientists puzzle over the question for good reason: understanding voters, and voting, provides the kind of knowledge that can help citizens access the polls and exercise the kind of power that voting gives them. JSTOR Daily, 18 Sep. 2024 There’s certainly little warmth surrounding the past here, beginning with an eerie, cryptic prologue, set in 1973, that sees a rural wedding crashed by yobs in sinister, medieval-looking straw masks, followed by yellowing newspaper headlines that puzzle over the bride’s subsequent disappearance. Guy Lodge, Variety, 13 Aug. 2024 See all Example Sentences for puzzle over 

Dictionary Entries Near puzzle over

Cite this Entry

“Puzzle over.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/puzzle%20over. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

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