bluff
adjective/blʌf/
/blʌf/
- (of people or their manner) very direct and cheerful, with good intentions, although not always very polite
- Beneath his bluff exterior he was a sensitive man.
Oxford Collocations DictionaryBluff is used with these nouns:- exterior
Word Originadjective early 18th cent. (‘surly, abrupt in manner’): figurative use of bluff ‘steep cliff or slope’. The current positive connotation dates from the early 19th cent.
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