BLUFF • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Bluff

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/bləf/ Listen

noun

Bluff n.

1.

A high, steep bank, as by a river or the sea, or beside a ravine or plain; a cliff with a broad face. "Beach, bluff, and wave, adieu."

2.

An act of bluffing; an expression of self-confidence for the purpose of intimidation; braggadocio; as, that is only bluff, or a bluff.

3.

A game at cards; poker. (U.S.)

verb

Bluff v. t. (past & past part. bluffed; pres. part. bluffing)

1.

(Poker) To deter (an opponent) from taking the risk of betting on his hand of cards, as the bluffer does by betting heavily on his own hand although it may be of less value. (U. S.)

2.

To frighten or deter from accomplishing a purpose by making a show of confidence in one's strength or resources; as, he bluffed me off. (Colloq.)

Bluff v. i. To act as in the game of bluff.

adjective

Bluff adj.

1.

Having a broad, flattened front; as, the bluff bows of a ship. "Bluff visages."

2.

Rising steeply with a flat or rounded front. "A bluff or bold shore." "Its banks, if not really steep, had a bluff and precipitous aspect."

3.

Surly; churlish; gruff; rough.

4.

Abrupt; roughly frank; unceremonious; blunt; brusque; as, a bluff answer; a bluff manner of talking; a bluff sea captain. "Bluff King Hal." "There is indeed a bluff pertinacity which is a proper defense in a moment of surprise."

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Etymology of 'Bluff'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Bluff" Quotes from Famous Books

... any sort. They leaped and plunged as the wagon scrambled, jerked, careened, stuck, detoured, and finally got through. There were miles of such going—heart-breaking miles—and at the end we paused at the top of a sixty-foot bluff and looked ...

— Tenting To-night - A Chronicle of Sport and Adventure in Glacier Park and the - Cascade Mountains • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... are commonplace, with bourgeois cunning written on the heavy features; one is bluff, another stolid, a third bloated, a fourth stately. The sculptors have dealt fairly with all, and not one has the lineaments of utter baseness. To Cristoforo Solari's statues of Lodovico Sforza and his wife, Beatrice d'Este, the ...

— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds

... this queerly assorted trio together, and, though they quarrelled furiously, nevertheless, with the passage of time their own weaknesses and those of the Maggie had aroused in each for the other a curious affection. While Captain Scraggs frequently "pulled" a monumental bluff and threatened to dismiss both Gibney and McGuffey—and, in fact, occasionally went so far as to order them off his ship, on their part Gibney and McGuffey were wont to work the same racket and resign. With the subsidence ...

— Captain Scraggs - or, The Green-Pea Pirates • Peter B. Kyne

... mixed brown and dingy gray, which, as they drew near, was shown as the action of iron rust on black and lead-colored paint. Here and there were outlines of painted ports. Under the stump of a shattered bowsprit projected from between bluff bows a weather-worn figurehead, representing the god of the sea. Above on the bows were wooden-stocked anchors stowed inboard, and aft on the quarters were iron davits with blocks intact—but no falls. In a few of the dead-eyes in the channels could be seen frayed rope-yarns, ...

— Great Sea Stories • Various

... wisdom, held out a five-franc piece, but the driver shrugged his shoulders disdainfully. He saw that the moment had come to bluster so he descended from his box fully prepared to carry out his bluff. He started in to abuse the two Americans whom in his ignorance ...

— The Lion and The Mouse - A Story Of American Life • Charles Klein

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