bluff
verb/blʌf/
/blʌf/
[intransitive, transitive]Verb Forms
Idioms Phrasal Verbs| present simple I / you / we / they bluff | /blʌf/ /blʌf/ |
| he / she / it bluffs | /blʌfs/ /blʌfs/ |
| past simple bluffed | /blʌft/ /blʌft/ |
| past participle bluffed | /blʌft/ /blʌft/ |
| -ing form bluffing | /ˈblʌfɪŋ/ /ˈblʌfɪŋ/ |
- bluff (something) to try to make somebody believe that you will do something that you do not really intend to do, or that you know something that you do not really know
- I don't think he'll shoot—I think he's just bluffing.
Oxford Collocations DictionaryBluff is used with these nouns as the object:- way
Word Originverb late 17th cent. (originally in the sense ‘blindfold, trick’): from Dutch bluffen ‘brag’, or bluf ‘bragging’. The current sense (originally US, mid 19th cent.) originally referred to bluffing in the game of poker.
Idioms
See bluff in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarybluff it out
- to get out of a difficult situation by continuing to tell lies, especially when people suspect you are not being honest
Check pronunciation:
bluff