bluff

«bluff» in Mova's school dictionary: stronger, braver, cleverer or have better cards than you… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (bluff, bluffs, bluffed, bluffing); noun (a bluff, bluffs); adjective (bluff)

meaning for a pupil

1) (verb) To pretend you are stronger, braver, cleverer or have better cards than you really do, to trick someone. tree →

2) (noun) A trick of pretending like this: «It was just a bluff.» tree →

3) (noun) A steep cliff or high bank, especially by a river or the sea. tree →

4) (adjective) Friendly and honest but rather direct and loud: «a bluff old farmer». tree →

sense in the lessons

In games like poker players bluff to win; in stories a hero bluffs past guards. «Call someone's bluff» means to make them prove what they claim. In geography a bluff is a steep slope by a river (common in the USA and Canada). Phrases: «call someone's bluff», «it's a bluff», «bluff your way through».

examples

• He said he had a dog at home, but he was bluffing. tree →
• I called her bluff and she admitted she had no ticket. tree →
• In card games you can bluff to make others give up. tree →
• The house stood on a bluff above the river. tree →
• The guard believed the bluff and let them in. tree →
• Grandad is a bluff man who says what he thinks. tree →
• Don't try to bluff your way through the test; study! tree →
• Again the big red eagle appeared on the edge of the bluff. tree →

note

Regular verb. Several unrelated meanings; context shows which. «Double bluff»: telling the truth so that people think you are lying.

In the corpora

• Saying "we had not considered that" impresses more than bluffing.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «bluff» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.