Meanings
-
1
verb
to deceive by pretending confidence or strength; a steep cliff
He decided to bluff his way through the interview.
Thesaurus
Etymology
The 'deceive' sense is from Dutch bluffen ('to brag, boast'), via American poker slang of the 19th century. The 'steep cliff' sense and the adjective 'broad, frank' are probably also of Dutch nautical origin (blaf, 'flat, broad').
View etymology graph ->