bluffed

verb

past tense of bluff
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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of bluffed Any time the Patriots succeed with a new blitz or bluffed blitz in the first quarter, offenses expect to see it again later in the game. — Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald, 17 Jan. 2026 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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bluffed
  1. tricked
  2. pretended
  3. fooled
  4. assumed
  5. deceived
  6. simulated
Verb
  • The woman did so willingly, and there is no allegation that she was forced or tricked.
    — Jim Defede, Miami Herald, 26 Oct. 2026
  • But now, the technology has caught up and people are tricked.
    — Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 25 Oct. 2026
Definition of tricked
Verb
  • Prosecutors said Navarrete then drove to his parents’ home with his children and pretended to discovered his parents were dead.
    — Rosalio Ahumada, Sacbee.com, 19 Oct. 2026
  • Tremble’s taunt after his second TD was already coming in for teasing by his teammates postgame, as running back Chuba Hubbard (120 rushing yards, one TD) pretended to be a reporter and asked Tremble about it.
    — Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer, 18 Oct. 2026
Definition of pretended
Verb
  • Chiefs-Seahawks game prediction Don’t be fooled be the records.
    — Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 22 Oct. 2026
  • As temperatures drop in the fall, aphids, like other garden pests, are less active, but don’t be fooled by appearances.
    — Nadia Hassani, The Spruce, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of fooled
Verb
  • Lukic, whose lab continues to scale up its medium-voltage unit, assumed the killer application for SSTs would be EVs.
    — Alex Pasternack, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026
  • If Cammarata is correct, then mechanistic interpretation may be more effective than many had assumed.
    — Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of assumed
Verb
  • Attorneys for New Mexico argued that the state's entire population, not just Facebook users, were deceived by the company's public statements about privacy on the platform.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 21 Oct. 2026
  • Attorneys for New Mexico argued that the state’s entire population, not just Facebook users, were deceived by the company’s public statements about privacy on the platform.
    — Mikella Schuettler, Fortune, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of deceived
Verb
  • This testing simulated the extreme temperatures, shaking and even the sounds that the spacecraft will experience from launch to landing.
    — Chelsea Gohd, Space.com, 23 Oct. 2026
  • Sceye’s platform carried the equivalent of a 4G LTE base station for the demonstration, which simulated providing backup coverage in the case of an earthquake or similar large-scale disaster.
    — Jeremy Hsu, ArsTechnica, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of simulated

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bluff
bluffed
bluffer
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Cite this Entry

“Bluffed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bluffed. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

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