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# 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bluff/#m1)

2) (noun) A trick of pretending like this: «It was just a bluff.» [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bluff/#m2)

3) (noun) A steep cliff or high bank, especially by a river or the sea. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bluff/#m3)

4) (adjective) Friendly and honest but rather direct and loud: «a bluff old farmer». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bluff/#m4)

### 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bluff/#x1)
- I called her bluff and she admitted she had no ticket. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bluff/#x2)
- In card games you can bluff to make others give up. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bluff/#x3)
- The house stood on a bluff above the river. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bluff/#x4)
- The guard believed the bluff and let them in. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bluff/#x5)
- Grandad is a bluff man who says what he thinks. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bluff/#x6)
- Don't try to bluff your way through the test; study! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bluff/#x7)
- Again the big red eagle appeared on the edge of the bluff. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bluff/#x8)

### 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.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/50-mock-ethics-olympiad/12/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «bluff» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/bluff/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.