MEANING
To challenge someone to prove a claim or carry out a threat you suspect is not genuine.
Use it for
testing whether someone will carry out a threat; challenging a claim that may be exaggerated; forcing a person to show what they can really do; distinguishing testing a bluff from simply disagreeingDescribes forcing a doubtful threat or claim to be demonstrated rather than merely believed. Writing functions: Testing a threat or claim.
Words that belong together
- call someone’s bluff on a threat
On the page
The landlord threatened court action, and she called his bluff by asking for the filing date.
He claimed to know every detail, so the interviewer called his bluff with one precise question.
Word forms
- Base
- call someone's bluff
Usage notes
Verbal idiom: call/calls/called/calling someone’s bluff. The possessive identifies whose claim or threat is being tested. Register: neutral. Commonness: common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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