【Confuse】 , 【muddle】 , 【addle】 , 【fuddle】 , 【befuddle】 mean to throw one out mentally so that one cannot think clearly or act intelligently.
【Confuse】 usually implies intense embarrassment or bewilderment.
【Muddle】 often suggests stupefaction (as by drink) and usually implies blundering, aimless, but not necessarily unsuccessful attempts to deal with ideas, situations, or tasks beyond one's powers of analysis or one's capacity.
【Addle】 suggests staleness or emptiness of mind and resulting mental impotence.
【Fuddle】 and the more common 【befuddle】 imply confusion from or as if from tippling or indulgence in a drug that clouds the mind and makes one's thinking and speech absurdly incoherent.
