call someone's bluff

present singular third person calls someone's bluff · participle present calling someone's bluff · participle past called someone's bluff · past called someone's bluff

1. idiomaticTo take action on the basis that another person is bluffing.

   She was tempted to call his bluff, hardly believing that he would carry out his threat.

   1 more example

   Eventually the NUR overplayed its hands with an all-out strike. And when Peter Parker, the then-chairman of BR, who was well regarded among his staff, called their bluff by threatening to close down the entire network, they caved in.

   2022 December 14, Christian Wolmar, “Productivity should play no part in pay negotiations”, in RAIL, number 972, page 46