subs. (common).—An excuse; a pretence; that which is intended to hoodwink or ‘to blind.’ Hence BLUFFER.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BLUFFER, … TO LOOK BLUFF, to look big, or like Bull-beef.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I., 231. [List of patterer’s words.] BLUFF, an excuse.
1879. BRET HARTE, Gabriel Conroy, xxxix. There is a strong suspicion among men whose heads are level, that this Minstrel Variety Performance is a BLUFF of the ‘Messenger’ to keep from the public the real motives of the murder.
1884. Boston (U.S.) Journal, 25 Sept. The offer was only a BLUFF.
1896. LILLARD, Poker Stories, 26. How a New Jersey Congressman once made a leather BLUFF is a good one. A certain very well known New Jersey politician—an old man, whose fame extends far beyond the borders of his own State—is celebrated as a great bluffer.
Verb (common).—To turn aside; to stop; to hoodwink; to blind as to one’s real intention: properly, to brag; to conceal one’s weakness; from poker. RAY (1674–91) gives BLUFF = blindfold, and BAILEY (1721) s= hoodwink.
1871. DE VERE, Americanisms, 327. Like its near cousin, suggestively called BLUFF, poker is a mere hazard game, with which, however, is combined great skill in bragging to a purpose. One man offers a bet on his hand; another doubles the bet and ‘goes one better’; then the first tries TO BLUFF him off by a still higher bet, and thus the stake rises rapidly to often enormous sums.
1883. Echo, April 20, 3, col. 5. Subsequently a prominent bookmaker attempted to BLUFF Captain Machel by laying him 2,000 to 1,000 on Goggles against Sweetbread—a merry little bit of financial diplomacy, which was promptly followed by Goggles being struck out.
1885. BRET HARTE, A Ship of ’49, v. ‘Far from BLUFFING, Sleight, I am throwing my cards on the table. Consider that I’ve passed out. Let some other man take my hand.’
1889. Answers, July 20, 121, col. 2. The youths evidently disagreed as to the nature of my business: one, as far as I could gather, assumed that I was a ‘nark,’ and that I was BLUFFING (making an excuse), and ‘flamming’ (lying).
