(a.) Having a broad, flattened front; as, the bluff bows of a ship.
(a.) Rising steeply with a flat or rounded front.
(a.) Surly; churlish; gruff; rough.
(a.) Abrupt; roughly frank; unceremonious; blunt; brusque; as, a bluff answer; a bluff manner of talking; a bluff sea captain.
(n.) A high, steep bank, as by a river or the sea, or beside a ravine or plain; a cliff with a broad face.
(n.) An act of bluffing; an expression of self-confidence for the purpose of intimidation; braggadocio; as, that is only bluff, or a bluff.
(n.) A game at cards; poker.
(v. t.) 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.
(v. t.) 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.
(v. i.) To act as in the game of bluff.
Example Sentences:
(1) I want to follow the west bank of the river south for some 100 miles to a bluff overlooking the river, where Sitting Bull is buried – and then, in the evening, to return to Bismarck.
(2) Despite huge uncertainties over their ability to pay for carbon capture and storage technology, [Peel subsidiary] Ayrshire Power has decided to go ahead with these plans and call Labour's bluff.
(3) Suppose western leaders called Russia’s bluff and insisted on a no-fly zone over Aleppo and a safe haven in northern Syria for refugees.
(4) Salmond accused the Westminster parties of a combination of bullying and bluff.
(5) On August 2, 1991, a neurologist in Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) in central Arkansas notified the Arkansas Department of Health of two patients hospitalized with St. Louis encephalitis (SLE).
(6) The impending publication of the putative nude pictures, a humiliation that turned out to be a bluff, might have pulled Watson down among the lower orders of former child stars, those people who now exist in the public consciousness merely as cautionary tales to scare naughty teenagers: “Look what happened to Bieber today!”; “Did you see Cyrus in that outfit?” Although Watson has put her head above the parapet before, the provocation cited by the hoaxers was the New York speech she gave last Monday promoting the HeForShe campaign and arguing that gender discrimination harms both men and women.
(7) This bombshell will weaken supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Ahmadinejad, chief negotiator Saeed Jalili, and the rest of Tehran's hardliner crew abroad and at home although, as usual, they will try to bluff their way through.
(8) Peggy was – I think (please correct me if not) – watching NBC’s Coogan’s Bluff knock-off McCloud which began in early 1970.
(9) Cameron added that recent warnings from banks such as Lloyds and RBS, and from firms such as BP and Shell proved that the economic and financial risks of independence were not bluff and bluster or bullying.
(10) A steady rise in the yes vote in recent opinion polls also established that voters did not buy "the bluff and bluster" of those opposed to independence.
(11) These places had their bluff called by the Occupy movement.
(12) The Zappa statue was audaciously suggested by local artists in 1992, as a slightly flippant test of their country's newfound democratic freedoms; to their surprise, the authorities called their bluff.
(13) Most of the sites are of the Bluff phase of Late Woodland in the lower Illinois River valley; others are from a nearby, contemporary archaeological phase.
(14) TV election debates: broadcasters call David Cameron's bluff Read more “They’ve chopped and changed formats, blinked under pressure, refused to consult constructively and now are absurdly threatening not to have the prime minister present.
(15) At that point the ECB’s hand may be looking quite poor – if the market doesn’t call their bluff first.
(16) Amid claims in the markets that politicians in Athens were playing a dangerous game of bluff, a potential schism in the monetary union saw borrowing costs for Spain and Italy rise over fears that contagion could spread from Greece through southern Europe.
(17) With the crisis and the payments protection insurance scandals combining to leave the financial services sector mistrusted as never before, there has never been a more opportune moment for calling the industry's bluff.
(18) This time, however, Scotland is calling the cardinal's bluff.
(19) Coren was author of more than 20 satirical books, a familiar face on television from the 1970s onwards - he was team captain on Call my Bluff - and a regular on Radio 4's News Quiz from 1975.
(20) During a career spanning three decades, she has been a regular on shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Call My Bluff, and QI, as well as fronting the travel programme Excess Baggage.
Fluff
Definition:
(n.) Nap or down; flue; soft, downy feathers.
Example Sentences:
(1) Absolutely, I think it’s quite fascinating, since I’ve been looking at it, to see that amongst the fluff there are serious things.
(2) Distribution of membrane in mature milks was: fat globules, 80%; skim milk, 20% (including fluff, 5%); and cells, less than 1%.
(3) These included an investigation of egg handling techniques from nest box to hatcher; the adoption by the hatchery of plastic setter trays; an improvement to incubator environment; an improvement in the overall hatchery hygiene programme and the introduction of a regular monitoring programme based on the examination of hatchery fluff.
(4) What they proved, in unambiguous data, was that the photo-op image of Team GB as a changing nation of many hues was not PR fluff but demographic reality.
(5) Awaiting his razor-sharp skills are four Cambridge lads sporting varying degrees of bum fluff.
(6) They could afford to fluff their lines with Bournemouth’s own glimpses of goal sporadic, and invariably limited to chaotic ricochets in the penalty area, but those are the chances that may need to be taken in the matches against Liverpool, Manchester United and Stoke City after the international break.
(7) When he did not sing the national anthem during a Battle of Britain commemoration service – prompting the outrage of the rightwing press – they saw it as the same diversionary fluff that surrounded whether he might, as a privy councillor, bow before the Queen.
(8) Many mammals fluff up their fur when threatened, to look bigger and so more dangerous.
(9) No, what really thwarts ambition is when a promising child fluffs up exams because her family can’t afford anything more than a cramped flat where there is nowhere quiet to study.
(10) The story goes that when Freeman took the garment to be dry-cleaned, it came back looking like a shapeless ball of fluff, but he continued to wear it regardless.
(11) He set up a website, Cats To Go , which includes an image of a kitten with devil's horns under the heading: "That little ball of fluff you own is a natural born killer".
(12) What Wired UK aims to do "is not fluff or bullshit: it's data".
(13) In injury-time, the Argentinian ran unchallenged from halfway with no defenders in sight only to fluff his chip.
(14) There's no mention of belly button fluff either - but blackheads, snot, puke, pus, scabs, tears, smegma, eyelid crumbs, vaginal discharges, menstrual blood and other gunk are all acceptable fodder, especially when dried to a crust under the fingernails.
(15) Obama fluffs around the topic but does own up: "I am ultimately responsible for what’s taking place there."
(16) It ran a Small Charity Week in June where three small charities – Down's Heart Group, Haworth Cat Rescue and Fat Fluffs Rabbit Rescue won £1,000 grants each.
(17) It’s not just fluff.” At the other end of the country, a few days later, in the original and first BrewDog bar, on Gallowgate in Aberdeen, barman Dave Bruce, 32, said he had spent 18 months trying to get a job there.
(18) With a decent covering of fur, this would fluff up the coat, getting more air into it, making it a better insulator.
(19) The results clearly showed that the diapers with absorbent polymer provide a better skin environment than those with fluff only with respect to lower skin wetness and pH control (instrumental measurements).
(20) Of course, in politics as in sport, there is no goal so open that someone can’t fluff it and miss.