English Explanatory Dictionary

bluff

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An act of bluffing; a false expression of the strength of one’s position in order to intimidate or deceive; braggadocio.
  2. An attempt to represent oneself as holding a stronger hand than one actually does.
  3. The card game poker.
  4. One who bluffs; a bluffer.
  5. Pretense, excuse.
verb
  1. To make a bluff; to give the impression that one’s hand is stronger than it is.
  2. To 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.
  3. To perform or achieve by bluffing.
  4. To give false information intentionally, to lie (to someone), to deceive; to put on an act.
noun
  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.
  2. A small wood or stand of trees, typically poplar or willow.
adj
  1. Having a broad, flattened front.
  2. Rising steeply with a flat or rounded front.
  3. Surly; churlish; gruff; rough.
  4. Roughly frank and hearty in one's manners.
verb
  1. To fluff, puff or swell up.
name
  1. A place in the United States:
  2. An unincorporated community in Fayette County, Alabama.
  3. A ghost town in Nome Census Area, Alaska.
  4. Synonym of Uptown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
  5. An unincorporated community in Fayette County, Texas.
  6. A town in San Juan County, Utah.
  7. A group of suburbs in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
  8. A rural town in the Central Highlands Region, Queensland, Australia.
  9. A town in Southland, New Zealand, the southernmost in the South Island, and seaport for the Southland region.
  10. A surname.

Pronunciation

/blʌf/ /blɐf/ En-au-bluff.ogg /blʊf/

Word forms

bluff bluffs bluffing bluffed bluffer bluffest

Etymology

Probably from Dutch bluffen (“to brag”), from Middle Dutch bluffen (“to make something swell; to bluff”); or from the Dutch noun bluf (“bragging”). Related to German verblüffen (“to stump, perplex”).

Synonyms

abrupt unceremonious blunt brusque Uptown Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

Derived words

all bluff and bluster at first bluff blind man's bluff bluff catcher bluff charge call someone's bluff counterbluff double bluff post oak bluff quadruple bluff rebluff semi-bluff triple bluff bluffable bluffer bluffingly bluff out double-bluff outbluff unbluffed blufflike Bluffton blufftop Council Bluffs DeValls Bluff Georgian Bluffs Ocean Bluff Poplar Bluff Red Bluff Scotts Bluff County bluff-bowed bluff-headed bluffly bluffness
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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