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

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recently on TikTok, people have been puzzling over how pop-stars achieve legs that reach almost uncanny levels of sheen. —

Hannah Jackson, Vogue, 27 Nov. 2024 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 See all Example Sentences for puzzle over