/blʌf/
[verb] To try to make someone believe something that is not true, often to gain an advantage or to hide a weakness. It can also be used as a noun to describe the act of bluffing or someone who is doing it.
Bluffing was once a sailor's trick long before it became a poker player's weapon.
The word 'bluff' carries within it the smell of saltwater and the creak of wooden ships. Its earliest traceable root is the Dutch word 'bluffen', meaning to boast, brag, or deceive — a word that Dutch sailors and merchants carried with them as they traded across the North Sea and into English ports during the 17th century. The Dutch were masters of commerce in this era, and their language left dozens of marks on English, particularly in the worlds of trade, seafaring, and negotiation.
In its earliest English use, 'bluff' described a very physical thing: a broad, flat face — either on a person or on the bow of a ship. A 'bluff-bowed' vessel was one with a wide, flat front, built more for carrying cargo than for speed. This sense of something wide, bold, and unapologetic stayed with the word for a long time and still lives on in the geographical meaning of 'bluff' — a steep cliff or headland with a broad, flat face overlooking water. This is why so many towns in the American Midwest and along the Mississippi River have names like Council Bluffs or Natchez Bluffs.
The leap from a flat-faced cliff to the idea of bold deception is more logical than it might first appear. To be 'bluff' in manner, as people said in the 18th century, was to be straightforward, even bluntly honest — almost aggressively so. But there is a thin line between performing boldness and faking it. By the early 19th century, the verb 'to bluff' had slid across that line. It began to mean pretending to have strength or confidence you do not actually possess — projecting a broad, unmovable face to the world while hiding what is really behind it.
Poker gave the word its modern superpower. As card games spread across America in the 19th century — down the Mississippi on riverboats, into saloons and army camps — 'bluffing' became the technical term for betting heavily on a weak hand, hoping your opponent would fold rather than call your bet. The poker table made 'bluff' famous. By the time of the American Civil War, the word was firmly established in its current meaning, and the phrase 'calling someone's bluff' — forcing them to prove a claim they were faking — had entered everyday speech.
What is remarkable about 'bluff' is how it managed to hold onto three quite different meanings at the same time: a geographical feature (a steep cliff), a personal quality (frank, direct, hearty), and an act of deception. These meanings are not really contradictions. They all share the same core image — something that presents a wide, bold, unreadable face to the world. Whether it is a cliff rising from a river, a person who speaks without ceremony, or a poker player pushing all their chips forward with a losing hand, the essence of 'bluff' is always about the power of a front.