bluff

/bləf/

/bləf/

Other forms: bluffs; bluffing; bluffed; bluffest

Bluff can mean a high cliff, or it can describe a person who is abrupt in manner. The most common usage of bluff is as a verb meaning to pretend. If you bluff at cards, you are pretending to have a better hand than you do.

Many a good crime story ends with a bluff—"I've already contacted the police and they're on their way," the detective will say when that is not at all the case. The expression "calling your bluff" comes from poker, where you "call" a game to see someone's actual cards. Calling someone's bluff means forcing them to admit the truth.

Definitions of bluff

1. noun

   a high steep bank (usually formed by river erosion)
   type of:

   bank

   a long ridge or pile
2. adjective

   very steep; having a prominent and almost vertical front
   “a bluff headland”

   synonyms: bold, sheer

   steep

   having a sharp inclination
3. adjective

   bluntly direct and outspoken but good-natured
   “a bluff but pleasant manner”

   “a bluff and rugged natural leader”

   synonyms:

   direct

   straightforward in means or manner or behavior or language or action
4. verb

   deceive an opponent by a bold bet on an inferior hand with the result that the opponent withdraws a winning hand
   synonyms: bluff out

   type of:

   go, move

   have a turn; make one's move in a game
5. verb

   frighten someone by pretending to be stronger than one really is
   type of:

   affright, fright, frighten, scare

   cause fear in
6. noun

   the act of bluffing in poker; deception by a false show of confidence in the strength of your cards
   synonyms: four flush

   type of:

   deceit, deception, dissembling, dissimulation

   the act of deceiving
7. noun

   pretense that your position is stronger than it really is
   “his bluff succeeded in getting him accepted”

   type of:

   dissembling, feigning, pretence, pretense

   pretending with intention to deceive