bluff-headed

bluff-headed (comparative more bluff-headed, superlative most bluff-headed)

1. (nautical) Built with the stem nearly vertical, as opposed to one with a rake that extends far beyond the keel.
   • 1869, “Household Amusements: Model Ship-Building”, in Cassell's household guide, volume 4, page 17:

     Some are constructed with a view to carrying a large cargo, and are broad, and what is technically termed "bluff-headed," whilst others are designed for fast sailing.

   • 1888, Walter Raymond, Misterton's Mistake, page 354:

     […] of a bluff-headed boat beating to windward in a choppy sea.

   • 1938, George Wharton Rice, The Shipping Days of Old Boothbay from the Revolution to the World War, page 49:

     The vessel appears strongly constructed of seasoned white oak timber, the bow bluff-headed, while aft the poop-deck has a rise which takes in the mizzenmast and pump.

   • 1985, The Great Circle, page 32:

     If one refers to af chapman one finds that while only three drawings of comparable ships show boomkins fitted, all drawings of bluff-headed ships show either an extra timberhead or a half-round cutting in the top of the hawse piece to accommodate this spar when needed.

2. (by extension) Having a broad, precipitous front or face.
   • 1844, “Tahiti”, in The Juvenile Missionary Magazine, volume 3, number 31, page 271:

     Do you not see that low bluff-headed mountain?

   • 1857, Hugh Miller, The Cruise of the Betsey:

     Leaving behind us the town at the bottom of its deep bay, we set out to explore a bluff-headed parallelogramical promontory, bounded by Thurso Bay on the one hand, and Murkle Bay on the other, and which presents to the open sea, in the space that stretches between, an undulating line of iron-bound coast, exposed to the roll of the northern ocean.

   • 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.

   • 1882, Henry William Herbert, “The Yorkshire Moors”, in ‎David Wright Judd, editor, Life and Writings of Frank Forester (Henry William Herbert.), page 35:

     But now we had reached our opening ground, the boy with the pony and the second brace of dogs was ordered to the rear, with instructions to meet us by the side of a certain gray rock, and spring-head, on the northern edge of Kettletang, a huge, bluff-headed hill, overtopping all his neighbors, at noon, when we should be there to refresh the inner man, and take up the fresh dogs for the afternoon.

   • 1898 December 10, “Malta Naval Hospital”, in Navy and Army Illustrated, volume 7, page 273:

     The position of the hospital is admirable, the buildings having an admirably clear outlook seaward, and standing high on the bluff-headed promontory of Bighi, which juts out into Bighi Bay, with the smaller inlet of Rinella Bay on the right, and the larger estuary of Calcara Bay, English Port, dividing the Bighi promontory from Vittoriosa and the triple-tiered fortress of St. Angelo, on the left.

3. (zoology) Having a rounded head with a flattish snout.
   • 1833, The Religious Souvenir, a Christmas, New Year's and Birthday Present, page 51:

     The Alpine mastiffs resemble the dogs of Newfoundland, but are somewhat more bluff-headed.

   • 1881, Oldfield Thomas, “On the Indian Species of the Genus Mus”, in The Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society of London, page 523:

     The members of this subgenus may always be readily distinguished by their bluff-headed and arvicoline aspect.

   • 1891, Thomas Spencer Baynes, The Encyclopaedia Britannica:

     The common Water-Vole (Arvicola amphibius) is as large as the house-rat, with which it is so often confused, but possesses of course the bluff-headed appearance and short tail characteristic of the voles.

   • 1896, Sir George Elliot Armstrong, Torpedoes and Torpedo-vessels, page 22:

     All such fish are bluff-headed and taper away to the tail, and this lesson from nature was taken to heart when the later patterns of torpedoes came to be constructed.

   • 1914, Marcus W. Millett, Jungle Sport in Ceylon from Elephant to Snipe, page 84:

     The Ceylong dugong is an extraordinary and interesting animal which is often seen on the coast. It is plentiful in and about the Gulf of Manaar, and resembles somewhat a huge, thickly-made, bluff-headed seal.

   • 1996, Richard Ellis, Deep Atlantic: Life, Death, and Exploration in the Abyss, page 305:

     It is said (in what may be an apocryphal story) that around 1712, a Nantucket captain named Christopher Hussey was blown offshore while hunting right whales, and came upon a school of large, bluff-headed whales with forward-angled spouts.

4. (by extension, of bullets) Having a rounded tip, as opposed to a flat or pointed tip.
   • 1862, “Armour Plates and Projectiles”, in The Artizan, volume 20, page 273:

     Mr. Crozier prefers to employ a bluff headed projectile, formed with the punch in a slight concave with rounded outer edges; as that shape will not detract from the weight of the head so much as the spherical, and if the projectile can be thrown without rotary motion, a hexagonal punch might be employed.

   • 1883, Sir William Armstrong, “Report of the Admiralty Committee on Designs for Ships of War, 1871: Paper A (On Gunnery”, in Earl Thomas Brassey, editor, The British Navy: Its Strength, Resources, and Administration:

     The hole made by a round or bluff-headed shot is of the same conical form as that made by a flat-headed projectile, but with a pointed shot the sides of the hole are more nearly parallel, the reason probably being, that a conical hole, of small diameter, is at first broken out by the action of the point, and then enlarged and made parallel by the body of the shot following through.

   • 1902 August, Herbert Tyler Harrington, “A Mixed Bag at Fort Rosebery”, in Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes, volume 78, page 85:

     A bluff-headed bullet from the right barrel of the .303 catching him on the shoulder brought him to a full stop, where he lay opening and shutting his huge jaws, a sort of mark-time business.

5. Having a broad face and gruff manners, especially when not exceptionally clever or assertive.
   • 1823 March 15, William Cobbett, “To Mr. Ricardo, On his proposition for dividing the land, in order to pay off the National Debt”, in Cobbett's Political Register, volume 45, number 11, page 651:

     I beseech every man who may read this to be perfectly convinced that I feel no pity for these bluff-headed fellows.

   • 1872, William Watts, Paradise Lost : Or, The Great Dragon Cast Out, page 16:

     Whether is it the African Negro, with his thick lips, flat nose, woolly head, and sable hide; the copper-colored Maroon; the stunted, blubber-eating Esquimaux; the filthy, goose-rumped Hottentot; or the bluff- headed, red-faced, potbellied John Bull?

   • 2004, John C. Lawrence, ‎C. Herbert Gilliland, Voyage to a Thousand Cares, page 51:

     He proved to be a large vulgar, thick bluff headed looking Englishman, without a coat, in a striped undressed cotton shirt, white flannel pants and straw hat.

   • 2023, James Grant, The Scottish Cavalier, page 15:

     "I pity these bluff-headed Saxon boors, because they know no better," replied Walter, staggering, as a stone struck him on the temple;