bluff

plural bluffs

1. countableuncountableAn act of bluffing; a false expression of the strength of one’s position in order to intimidate or deceive; braggadocio.

   That is only bluff, or That is only a bluff.

   1 more example

   "That's enough," announced Joolby with decision. "You've put up all the bluff you know, Carrados, and we've got you dog-beaten. […]"

   1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of London

2. countableuncountablecard gamesAn attempt to represent oneself as holding a stronger hand than one actually does.

   John’s bet was a bluff: he bet without even so much as a pair.

3. USdateduncountableThe card game poker.

   BLUFF OR POKER [title of a chapter]

   1845, Hoyle's Games

4. countableOne who bluffs; a bluffer.
5. countabledatedslanguncountablePretense, excuse.

present singular third person bluffs · participle present bluffing · participle past bluffed · past bluffed

1. card gamesTo make a bluff; to give the impression that one’s hand is stronger than it is.

   John bluffed by betting without even a pair.

2. by analogyTo frighten, deter, or deceive with a false show of strength or confidence; to give a false impression of strength or temerity in order to intimidate or gain some advantage.

   The government claims it will call an election if this bill does not pass. Is it truly ready to do so, or is it bluffing?

3. To perform or achieve by bluffing.

   We bluffed our way past the guards.

4. ManglishSinglishTo give false information intentionally, to lie (to someone), to deceive; to put on an act.

   Vinod, you want to bluff the doctor, your mother, father, uncle, auntie, CMPB all that I don't care. But you cannot bluff me.

   1993, Haresh Sharma, Off Centre, Ethos Books, →ISBN, Act 3, scene I, page 86, lines 1–4

plural bluffs

1. A high, steep bank, for example by a river or the sea, or beside a ravine or plain; a cliff with a broad face.

   It seems there was a worm that slept upon a pile of treasure, which it had zealously heaped up under a stone bluff.

   1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 39

   3 more examples

   In the sketch (which is taken about 75 Jovian days after that of the 2nd July) there is shown a dark copper-coloured streak along the southern margin of the south brown belt, butting on to a bluff-headed streak of cumulus cloud which may be the same remarkable bluff head noticed on July 2.

   1878 November 8, C. Todd, “Observations at the Adelaide Observatory”, in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, volume 39, number 1, page 18

   Bounded to the north and west by mountains and river, to the east by river alone, and to the south by high bluffs that mark the beginning of the loess country, it is a compact and easily defended territory hospitable only to nomads. Today these lands are divided between the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region and the Ning-hsia Hui Autonomous Region. Under the Republic the Ho-t’ao and Pao-t’ou plains were included in Sui-yuan province, and the Ning-hsia area in Ning-hsia province.

   1990, Arthur Waldron, “The second debate over the Ordos”, in The Great Wall of China: From History to Myth, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 125

   Situated on bluffs above the Huangpu, a tributary of the Yangtze, Shanghai—which means ‘above the sea’—is sinking.

   2020, David Farrier, “Thin Cities”, in Footprints, 4th Estate, →ISBN

2. Canadian PrairiesA small wood or stand of trees, typically poplar or willow.

comparative bluffer · superlative bluffest

1. Having a broad, flattened front.

   the bluff bows of a ship

2. Rising steeply with a flat or rounded front.

   a bluff or bold shore

   1769, William Falconer, "Côte en écore" (entry in An Universal Dictionary of the Marine)

   1 more example

   Its banks, if not really steep, had a bluff and precipitous aspect.

   1845, Sylvester Judd, Margaret: A Tale of the Real and the Ideal, Blight and Bloom; Including Sketches of a Place Not Before Described, Called Mons Christi

3. Surly; churlish; gruff; rough.

   […] he had a bluff, rough-and-ready face, all roughened and reddened and lined in his long travels.

   1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC

4. Roughly frank and hearty in one's manners.

   a bluff answer

   3 more examples

   a bluff manner of talking

   a bluff sea captain

   There is indeed a bluff pertinacity which is a proper defence in a moment of surprise.

   1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC

   Synonyms: abrupt, unceremonious, blunt, brusque

present singular third person bluffs · participle present bluffing · participle past bluffed · past bluffed

1. To fluff, puff or swell up.

   I remember one idle bright afternoon here when Phillip bluffed out his little chest, sneaking expectant glances back at me and Cammy, until she "restrained" him from bickering with that beagle.

   2002, Nick Fowler, “Sunday in the Park with Sores”, in A Thing (or Two) about Curtis and Camilla, New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books, →ISBN; 1st Vintage Contemporaries edition, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, June 2003, →ISBN, pages 285–286

   2 more examples

   Not a sparrow on the cottage thatch, where the chimney's warmth had thawed the snow, that did not seem to have his great coat on, so bluffed out were the feathers, and not a frozen-out duck who did not glance up at the icicles hanging to the roof, and quack a prayer for rain.

   1866, Grantley F[itzhardinge] Berkeley, “Incidents of Sport”, in My Life and Recollections. … Complete in Four Volumes, volume III, London: Hurst and Blackett, publishers, successors to Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 124

   [W]hen the bare boughs of a tree intervened between her and the rising bright but deep red sun, frosted as the twigs were, on them sat a merry flock of sparrows, the feathers on their breasts bluffed out, as if they had donned warm winter spencers to shield them from the biting blast.

   1870, Grantley F[itzhardinge] Berkeley, “The Fair Doe of Fernditch”, in Tales of Life and Death. … In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 117

1. A place in the United States:
   1. An unincorporated community in Fayette County, Alabama.
   2. A ghost town in Nome Census Area, Alaska.
   3. Synonym of Uptown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

      Synonyms: Uptown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

   4. An unincorporated community in Fayette County, Texas.
   5. A town in San Juan County, Utah.
2. A group of suburbs in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
3. A rural town in the Central Highlands Region, Queensland, Australia.
4. A town in Southland, New Zealand, the southernmost in the South Island, and seaport for the Southland region.

   Former name: Campbelltown

5. A surname.