Pretense

Usage examples of bluff.

Not only was it exceptionally lofty, and on one flank of that series of bluffs which has before been mentioned as constituting the line upon which the Confederate grip of the stream was based, but the tortuous character of the channel gave particular facilities for an enfilading fire on vessels both before and after they came abreast the works.

Memphis had pursued its winding course through an alluvial country, made when abreast of Vicksburg a sharp turn to the northeast, as though determined to reach the bluffs but four miles distant.

South of the river the land is low, but from the depth of the channel forms a line of bluffs, affording good shelter to troops after crossing to assail a force beyond.

On the opposite side of a narrow valley, through which runs Beaver Dam Creek, rises a bold, almost precipitous, bluff, and the road which the Confederates were compelled to take bends abruptly to the right when near the stream, thus exposing the flank of the assaulting party to a fire from the bluff.

Wellington, and the bluff old Prussian, Blucher, met him at Waterloo, defeated his armies and drove him from the field.

Many argued that he was only bluffing or, at worst, intending to seize two disputed islands and the southern half of the ar-Rumaylah oilfield, which straddled the Iraq-Kuwait border.

The moderate Arabs, who claimed to understand Saddam as only brother Arabs could, reinforced this stance by advising the United States that Saddam was just bluffing, urged the administration to steer clear of the dispute and let them handle it.

Iraq was not bluffing and had the capability to overrun all of Kuwait was finally being sent out to the highest levels of the government.

In 1994, faced with hyperinflation and mounting threats to his regime, Saddam took the inexplicable step of threatening another invasion of Kuwait--and the best evidence we have, from Hussein Kamel, was that Saddam was not bluffing but genuinely intended to attack.

Whether Goering was bluffing or not, the police commander apparently believed he was not and let the column file over the bridge unmolested.

Now, at last, the Chief of the General Staff had his desired, unequivocal proof that Hitler was not bluffing, that he wanted war.

I replied that I was fully aware of the fact and that we were not bluffing either.

Rodeo in Bluff Springs, drew back against the corral, his keen gray eyes on the girl who was passing with Bill Bly, the rodeo star.

They were closer to Red Bluff than Redding, putting down finally on the edges of what the map showed as the Yolla Bolly Middle Eel Wilderness.

The land had been hideously buckled by some ancient calamity, raised into rocky bluffs and windswept ridges, and sunk deep into dry riverbeds, canyons and things deeper than canyons.