A number baffle and deceive (6)
I believe the answer is:
delude
'deceive' is the definition.
(I know that deceive can be written as delude)
'a number baffle' is the wordplay.
'a number' becomes 'd' (D is an example).
'baffle' becomes 'elude' (eluding is a kind of baffling).
'd'+'elude'='DELUDE'
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for delude that I've seen before include "swindle" , "Mislead or fool" , "Cause to believe something untrue, deceive" , "Deceive, lead on" , "Cause to believe a lie" .)