maze

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)

CIDE DICTIONARY

maze, n. [OE. mase; cf. OE. masen to confuse, puzzle, Norweg. masast to fall into a slumber, masa to be continually busy, prate, chatter, Icel. masa to chatter, dial. Sw. masa to bask, be slow, work slowly and lazily, mas slow, lazy.].

•  A wild fancy; a confused notion.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]
•  Confusion of thought; perplexity; uncertainty; state of bewilderment.  [1913 Webster]
•  A confusing and baffling network, as of paths or passages; an intricacy; a labyrinth.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

  "Or down the tempting maze of Shawford brook."  [1913 Webster]

  "The ways of Heaven are dark and intricate,
  Puzzled with mazes, and perplexed with error."  [1913 Webster]
•  A complex and confusing system or set of rules that causes bwilderment; as, a maze of environemntal regulations.  [PJC]

Syn. -- Labyrinth; intricacy. See Labyrinth.

maze, v. t. 

 To perplex greatly; to bewilder; to astonish and confuse; to amaze.  South.  [1913 Webster]

maze, v. i. 

 To be bewildered.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

maze, n. & v.
--n.
1 a network of paths and hedges designed as a puzzle for those who try to penetrate it.
2 a complex network of paths or passages; a labyrinth.
3 confusion, a confused mass, etc.
--v.tr. (esp. as mazed adj.) bewilder, confuse.

Derivative

mazy adj. (mazier, maziest).

Etymology

ME, orig. as mased (adj.): rel. to AMAZE

THESAURUS

maze

Chinese puzzle, Gordian knot, Rube Goldberg contraption, addle, addle the wits, amaze, baffle, ball up, bamboozle, beat, becloud, bedazzle, befuddle, befuddlement, bewilder, bewilderment, boggle, bother, botheration, buffalo, bug, can of worms, chaos, cloud, complex, confound, confuse, confusion, conglomeration, daze, dazzle, discombobulate, discombobulation, discomfit, discomfiture, discompose, discomposure, disconcert, disconcertion, disorder, disorganization, disorganize, disorient, disorientation, disturb, disturbance, embarrass, embarrassment, entangle, floor, flummox, flurry, fluster, flutter, fog, frenzy, fuddle, fuddlement, fuss, get, gordian knot, haze, hodgepodge, intricacy, jumble, jungle, keep in suspense, knot, labyrinth, lick, meander, mesh, mess, miscellany, mishmash, mist, mix up, moider, morass, muddle, muddleheadedness, muddlement, mystify, nonplus, perplex, perplexity, perturb, perturbation, pother, pucker, put out, puzzle, raise hell, rattle, ravel, ruffle, shuffle, skein, snafu, snake pit, snarl, stew, stick, stump, sweat, swivet, tangle, tangled skein, throw, throw into confusion, tizzy, unsettle, unsettlement, upset, web, webwork, wheels within wheels, wilderness

ROGET THESAURUS

maze

Difficulty

N difficulty, hardness, impracticability, tough work, hard work, uphill work, hard task, Herculean task, Augean task, task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labor, tough job, teaser, rasper, dead lift, dilemma, embarrassment, deadlock, perplexity, intricacy, entanglement, complexity, cross fire, awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card to play, knot, Gordian knot, dignus vindice nodus, net, meshes, maze, coil, crooked path, involvement, nice point, delicate point, subtle point, knotty point, vexed question, vexata quaestio, poser, puzzle, paradox, hard nut to crack, nut to crack, bone to pick, crux, pons asinorum, where the shoe pinches, nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt, critical situation, crisis, trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble, scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest, sea of troubles, peck of troubles, pretty kettle of fish, pickle, stew, imbroglio, mess, ado, false position, set fast, stand, standstill, deadlock, dead set, fix, horns of a dilemma, cul de sac, hitch, stumbling block, crab, curmudgeon, difficult, not easy, hard, tough, troublesome, toilsome, irksome, operose, laborious, onerous, arduous, Herculean, formidable, sooner said than done, more easily said than done, easier said than done, difficult to deal with, hard to deal with, ill-conditioned, crabbed, crabby, not to be handled with kid gloves, not made with rose water, awkward, unwieldy, unmanageable, intractable, stubborn, perverse, refractory, plaguy, trying, thorny, rugged, knotted, knotty, invious, pathless, trackless, labyrinthine, intricate, complicated, impracticable, not feasible, desperate, embarrassing, perplexing, delicate, ticklish, critical, beset with difficulties, full of difficulties, surrounded by difficulties, entangled by difficulties, encompassed with difficulties, under a difficulty, in a box, in difficulty, in hot water, in the suds, in a cleft stick, in a fix, in the wrong box, in a scrape, in deep water, in a fine pickle, in extremis, between two stools, between Scylla and Charybdis, surrounded by shoals, surrounded by breakers, surrounded by quicksands, at cross purposes, not out of the wood, reduced to straits, hard pressed, sorely pressed, run hard, pinched, put to it, straitened, hard up, hard put to it, hard set, put to one's shifts, puzzled, at a loss, at the end of one's tether, at the end of one's rope, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus, at a standstill, graveled, nonplused, nonplussed, stranded, aground, stuck fast, set fast, up a tree, at bay, aux abois, driven into a corner, driven from pillar to post, driven to extremity, driven to one's wit's end, driven to the wall, au bout de son Latin, out of one's depth, thrown out, accomplished with difficulty, hard-fought, hard-earned, with difficulty, with much ado, barely, hardly, uphill, against the stream, against the grain, d rebours, invita Minerva, in the teeth of, at a pinch, upon a pinch, at long odds, against long odds, ay there's the rub, hic labor hoc opus, things are come to a pretty pass, ab inconvenienti, ad astra per aspera, acun chemin de fleurs ne conduit a la gloire.

Convolution

N convolution, winding, convolution, involution, circumvolution, wave, undulation, tortuosity, anfractuosity, sinuosity, sinuation, meandering, circuit, circumbendibus, twist, twirl, windings and turnings, ambages, torsion, inosculation, reticulation, rivulation, roughness, coil, roll, curl, buckle, spiral, helix, corkscrew, worm, volute, rundle, tendril, scollop, scallop, escalop, kink, ammonite, snakestone, serpent, eel, maze, labyrinth, knot, convoluted, winding, twisted, tortile, tortive, wavy, undated, undulatory, circling, snaky, snake-like, serpentine, serpent, anguill, vermiform, vermicular, mazy, tortuous, sinuous, flexuous, anfractuous, reclivate, rivulose, scolecoid, sigmoid, sigmoidal, spiriferous, spiroid, involved, intricate, complicated, perplexed, labyrinth, labyrinthic, labyrinthian, labyrinthine, peristaltic, daedalian, kinky, knotted, wreathy, frizzly, crepe, buckled, raveled, spiral, coiled, helical, cochleate, cochleous, screw-shaped, turbinated, turbiniform, in and out, round and round, a can of worms, Gordian knot.

Secret

N secret, dead secret, profound secret, arcanum, mystery, latency, Asian mystery, sealed book, secrets of the prison house, le desous des cartes, enigma, riddle, puzzle, nut to crack, conundrum, charade, rebus, logogriph, monogram, anagram, Sphinx, crux criticorum, maze, labyrinth, Hyrcynian wood, intricacy, meander, problem, paradox, unintelligibility, terra incognita, secret, involved, labyrinthine, labyrinthian, mazy, confidential, top secret.