English · Idiom Candidate

puzzle out

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

to figure something out with difficulty or effort

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

làm rõ điều gì đó với khó khăn hoặc nỗ lực

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to solve a puzzle

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

She puzzled out the cryptic message.

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “puzzle out” mean?

to figure something out with difficulty or effort Literally: to solve a puzzle

Is “puzzle out” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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