How to Use puzzle over in a Sentence

puzzle over

phrasal verb

• When Janet is in bed with Wayne, Lacy puzzles over a knot of limbs.
  — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 25 June 2024
• Soon enough, Poirot and Oliver have fresh corpses to puzzle over.
  — Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, 14 Sep. 2023
• They were forced to puzzle over topographic maps so old that some dated to the Civil War.
  — Lizzie Johnson and Lauren Tierney, Anchorage Daily News, 27 July 2023
• Teams of lawyers studied the watch’s provenance and puzzled over how to offer it for sale without raising eyebrows.
  — Jay Fielden, The New Yorker, 17 June 2024
• If that’s true, scientists are still left puzzling over how the four rhopalia work together to make up a functioning, brain-like system.
  — Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 Sep. 2023
• For decades, scientists have puzzled over what geologic engine is at work that brings heat from the Earth’s core to cause these eruptions.
  — Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics, 1 June 2023
• His team puzzled over the stuck fasteners and the limitations posed by the container’s quarantine in a sealed box.
  — Daniel Wu, Washington Post, 31 Jan. 2024
• But executives have long puzzled over how to carry that interest over to evening hours.
  — Brian Steinberg, Variety, 18 July 2024
• In Oregon, rural school districts have puzzled over how to provide enough housing for teachers.
  — Rachel Siegel, Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2023
• For years, astronomers have puzzled over why Uranus is tinted green during its solstices but radiates a bluer glow at its equinoxes.
  — Becky Ferreira, New York Times, 4 Jan. 2024
• Lying in his bunk at night — a 2-inch thick mattress and a pillow made of a blanket folded inside a T-shirt — Armstrong puzzles over his life: how the most unlikely place — jail and prison — opened his heart.
  — Thomas Curwen, Los Angeles Times, 13 Dec. 2023
• Analysts puzzled over the data, with some wondering whether Italy’s agreement to join the BRI might finally be paying off.
  — Nicholas Gordon, Fortune, 31 July 2023
• But those who have puzzled over Tate’s appeal to young men should not be surprised that politicians making jokes about breasts enjoy similar success.
  — Christian Edwards, CNN, 25 June 2024
• Archaeologists have long puzzled over the prominence of the hamadryas baboon in ancient Egyptian culture.
  — Nathaniel J. Dominy, Scientific American, 1 Nov. 2021
• As a construction company started working on rebuilding the house, the family puzzled over how to handle the centuries-old wall.
  — Demetrios Ioannou, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 Aug. 2024
• Yet economists puzzle over why people can feel so down but continue to spend big on vacations, concert tickets and dining out.
  — Rachel Siegel, Washington Post, 14 Nov. 2023
• Scientists are puzzled over what's causing hundreds of fish to wash up dead in South Florida, including an endangered species native to the region.
  — Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 29 Mar. 2024
• Experts are still puzzling over this: Does coffee—and particularly caffeine—contribute to people losing pounds in the first place?
  — Lori Youmshajekian, Scientific American, 13 Aug. 2024
• Scientists have long puzzled over how the hobbit evolved its peculiar proportions.
  — Jeanna Bryner, Scientific American, 7 Aug. 2024
• After puzzling over them for a few days, Mama took me a few towns over to see an albularyo, an animistic healer who could reverse illnesses caused by the taong-lupa surrounding all of us.
  — Geena Rocero, SELF, 26 June 2023
• Fiorito, a 44-year-old attorney, puzzled over the home’s decrepit status and why the seller was the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity.
  — Erika Mailman, WSJ, 4 Jan. 2024
• The trailer opens with Rustin (played by Colman Domingo) puzzling over the logistics for an ambitiously large-scale demonstration—organized over just eight weeks.
  — Teresa Nowakowski, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Aug. 2023
• In recent years, scientists have puzzled over a particular class of transients – bursts of intense X-rays and light shot from distant galactic centers.
  — Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 12 Sep. 2023
• The rest of the scene plays out with the advice-giving nanny frantically explaining not to use gas, or coconut oil, on a baby’s diaper zone, while Bajos’ character puzzles over what to slather on her tiny ward.
  — WIRED, 1 Nov. 2023
• Hammett fans have long puzzled over this enigmatic digression.
  — Patrick Radden Keefe, The New Yorker, 25 Dec. 2023
• People can also puzzle over this film’s casting of two controversial actors: Vincent Gallo and James Franco.
  — Martha Ross, The Mercury News, 17 Jan. 2024
• For a century, physiologists have puzzled over how the body coordinates the switch between storage and release.
  — Emily Underwood, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 June 2024
• Scholars have puzzled over the moai on Easter Island for decades, pondering their cultural significance, as well as how a Stone Age culture managed to carve and transport statues weighing as much as 92 tons.
  — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 21 June 2024
• But the people with the power to free him keep puzzling over his crimes, demanding explanations, psychological insight, the thinnest ray of sunlight on his motivations.
  — Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times, 15 May 2024
• The development comes after scientists have spent years studying the skull and puzzling over its combination of archaic and modern features.
  — Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 11 Aug. 2023

Last Updated: 11 Nov 2024