different between bluff vs gruff

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /bl?f/
• Rhymes: -?f

Etymology 1

Probably from Dutch bluffen (“to brag”), from Middle Dutch bluffen (“to make something swell; to bluff”); or from the Dutch noun bluf (“bragging”). Related to German verblüffen (“to stump, perplex”).

Noun

bluff (countable and uncountable, plural bluffs)

1. An act of bluffing; a false expression of the strength of one's position in order to intimidate; braggadocio.

2. (poker) An attempt to represent oneself as holding a stronger hand than one actually does.

3. (US, dated) The card game poker.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bartlett to this entry?)

4. One who bluffs; a bluffer.
5. (slang, dated) An excuse.

Derived terms

• call someone's bluff

Translations

Verb

bluff (third-person singular simple present bluffs, present participle bluffing, simple past and past participle bluffed)

1. (poker) To make a bluff; to give the impression that one's hand is stronger than it is.

2. (by analogy) To frighten or deter with a false show of strength or confidence; to give a false impression of strength or temerity in order to intimidate and gain some advantage.

3. To take advantage by bluffing.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Related to Middle Low German blaff (“smooth”).

Noun

bluff (plural bluffs)

1. A high, steep bank, for example by a river or the sea, or beside a ravine or plain; a cliff with a broad face.
3. (Canadian Prairies) A small wood or stand of trees, typically poplar or willow.

Derived terms

• Council Bluffs
• DeValls Bluff
• Red Bluff
• Scotts Bluff County

Translations

Adjective

bluff (comparative bluffer, superlative bluffest)

1. Having a broad, flattened front.

2. Rising steeply with a flat or rounded front.
   • 1769, William Falconer, "Côte en écore" (entry in An Universal Dictionary of the Marine)

     a bluff or bold shore

   • 1845, Sylvester Judd, Margaret: A Tale of the Real and the Ideal, Blight and Bloom; Including Sketches of a Place Not Before Described, Called Mons Christi

     Its banks, if not really steep, had a bluff and precipitous aspect.

3. Surly; churlish; gruff; rough.
   • 1883: Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

     […] he had a bluff, rough-and-ready face, all roughened and reddened and lined in his long travels.

4. Roughly frank and hearty in one's manners.

   Synonyms: abrupt, unceremonious, blunt, brusque

   • 1832, Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening

     There is indeed a bluff pertinacity which is a proper defence in a moment of surprise.

Translations

Etymology 3

Possibly onomatopoeic, perhaps related to blow and puff.

Verb

bluff (third-person singular simple present bluffs, present participle bluffing, simple past and past participle bluffed)

1. To fluff, puff or swell up.

Translations

References

• “bluff” in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 2004.

Further reading

• bluff on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Bluff in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Danish

Alternative forms

• bluf

Etymology

Borrowed from English bluff.

Noun

bluff n

1. bluff

Related terms

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English bluff.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blœf/

Noun

bluff m (plural bluffs)

1. (chiefly card games) bluff

Further reading

• “bluff” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from English bluff.

Noun

bluff c

1. a bluff

Declension

Related terms

• bluffa
• bluffare
• bluffmakare

English

Etymology

From Middle Dutch grof (“coarse”). Cognate to Low German groff, Dutch grof, and German grob. The American Heritage Dictionary relates it to a hypothetical Proto-Germanic "ga-hrub-", related to *hreubaz (“rough, scabby, scrubby”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???f/
• Rhymes: -?f

Adjective

gruff (comparative gruffer, superlative gruffest)

1. having a rough, surly, and harsh demeanor and nature.
2. hoarse-voiced.

Quotations

• 1727 "The manner of it was more after the pleasing Transports of those ancient Poets you are often charm'd with, than after the fierce unsociable way of modern Zealots; those starch'd gruff Gentlemen, who guard Religion as Bullys to a Mistress, and give us the while a very indifferent Opinion of their Lady's Merit, and their own Wit, by adoring what they neither allow to be inspected by others, nor care themselves to examine in a fair light." — Anthony Ashley Cooper Shaftesbury. Characteristicks of men, manners, opinions, times. Vol II. p218

• 1729 "They had no Titles of Honour among them, but such as denoted some Bodily Strength or Perfection, as such an one the Tall, such an one the Stocky, such an one the Gruff." — Joseph Addison, Richard Steele. The Spectator. Vol VI, No 433. p146

• 1825 "Mr. Suberville, as well as she, surprised and pleased at this proof of politeness so unsuited to his gouty appearance and gruff manners, looked at him in astonishment, but were sorry to perceive him stoop down as if he had strained his leg in the exertion, while the pain it caused seemed to have driven every drop of his blood into his sallow face." — Thomas Colley Grattan. High-ways and by-ways. Vol III. p209-10

Derived terms

• gruffly
• gruffness

Translations

Verb

gruff (third-person singular simple present gruffs, present participle gruffing, simple past and past participle gruffed)

1. To speak gruffly.
   • 2001, Benny Hinn, He Touched Me: An Autobiography

     “Who gave you that?” replied my father angrily. “Did you bribe someone?” “No,” I told him. “It was a gift, from some people who really want me to be on this trip.” “Fine,” he gruffed.

Swedish

Noun

gruff n

1. argument, quarrel