1
as in tricked
to cause to believe what is untrue
I bluffed the interviewer into believing that I could really speak French and thus would be the perfect person to serve in the newspaper's Paris bureau
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in pretended
to present a false appearance of
the basketball player bluffed a shot, then passed instead
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Recent Examples of bluffed
On the second interception, Simmons said Delaware bluffed as if an all-out blitz was coming before falling back into coverage and making the pick.
—
Walter Villa, Miami Herald, 21 Sep. 2025
Walter Villa, Miami Herald, 21 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bluffed
Verb
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To stop this quarterback, Mizzou can’t get tricked by his illusions.—
Chase Gemes,
Kansas City Star,
24 Oct. 2025
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Another legend explains how in the distant past, the nefarious Lake Nyos was formed from the decomposing body of a Kom chief whose people had been tricked and murdered by the Bamessi tribe.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
22 Oct. 2025
Verb
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The rest of his Republican colleagues gleefully approved the bill and have pretended ever since that their vote was the right thing to do.—
The Editorial Board,
Oc Register,
22 Oct. 2025
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Tapping into his State Farm acting chops on fourth down while leading 7-0, Mahomes pretended to be frustrated with a Reid play-call before handing the ball off.—
Pete Sweeney,
Kansas City Star,
21 Oct. 2025
Verb
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And don’t be fooled by spotless sheets.—
Stacey Leasca,
Travel + Leisure,
27 Oct. 2025
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Our members aren’t going to be fooled by PR spin.—
Mandy Taheri,
MSNBC Newsweek,
26 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Khaled assumed he was being moved to yet another prison, until he was taken to a place called Ward A.—
Mosab Abu Toha,
New Yorker,
24 Oct. 2025
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This is why, for most of the 20th century — until the 1980s — people assumed that the hot Big Bang implied a singularity at the beginning.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
24 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Despite being deceived, Stone, who dated Garfield for four years, conceded that the actor's dedication to the secret was honorable.—
Mekishana Pierre,
Entertainment Weekly,
20 Oct. 2025
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According to Chinese sources, one of its electronic warfare (EW) systems has successfully deceived a foreign spy plane over the South China Sea.—
Christopher McFadden,
Interesting Engineering,
12 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Wednesday’s ballistic missile launches by North Korea were the first of their kind since the country on May 8 tested short-range systems that simulated nuclear counterstrikes against US and South Korean forces.—
CNN Money,
CNN Money,
22 Oct. 2025
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In 2011, Deconinck and Oliveras simulated different disturbances with higher and higher frequencies and watched what happened to the Stokes waves.—
Joseph Howlett,
Quanta Magazine,
15 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Bluffed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bluffed. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
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