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bluff (third-person singular simple presentbluffs, present participlebluffing, simple past and past participlebluffed)
(poker) To make a bluff; to give the impression that one’s hand is stronger than it is.
John bluffed by betting without even a pair.
(by analogy) 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.
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?
A high, steep bank, for example by a river or the sea, or beside a ravine or plain; a cliff with a broad face.
1878 November 8, C. Todd, “Observations at the Adelaide Observatory”, in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, volume 39, number 1, page 18:
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.
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.
2020, David Farrier, “Thin Cities”, in Footprints, 4th Estate, →ISBN:
Situated on bluffs above the Huangpu, a tributary of the Yangtze, Shanghai—which means ‘above the sea’—is sinking.
1769, William Falconer, "Côte en écore" (entry in An Universal Dictionary of the Marine)
a bluff or bold shore
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:
Its banks, if not really steep, had a bluff and precipitous aspect.
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.
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.
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.