Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) to confuse.

1878

Meridional (Abbeveille, LA) 24 Aug. 2/2: The mob of country-savers, shysters, dead-beats, bummers [...] guttersnipes, wardstrikers, shoulder-hitters, gin gugglers and monopolists who congregate [...] to hoodwink and bumfuddle the unwary and bulldoze the upright.