"call someone's bluff" meaning in English

See call someone's bluff in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-call someone's bluff.ogg Forms: calls someone's bluff [present, singular, third-person], calling someone's bluff [participle, present], called someone's bluff [participle, past], called someone's bluff [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|call<> someone's bluff}} call someone's bluff (third-person singular simple present calls someone's bluff, present participle calling someone's bluff, simple past and past participle called someone's bluff)
  1. (idiomatic) To take action on the basis that another person is bluffing. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-call_someone's_bluff-en-verb-davM8ai5 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "calls someone's bluff",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "calling someone's bluff",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "called someone's bluff",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "called someone's bluff",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "call<> someone's bluff"
      },
      "expansion": "call someone's bluff (third-person singular simple present calls someone's bluff, present participle calling someone's bluff, simple past and past participle called someone's bluff)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She was tempted to call his bluff, hardly believing that he would carry out his threat.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 December 14, Christian Wolmar, “Productivity should play no part in pay negotiations”, in RAIL, number 972, page 46:",
          "text": "Eventually the NUR overplayed its hands with an all-out strike. And when Peter Parker, the then-chairman of BR, who was well regarded among his staff, called their bluff by threatening to close down the entire network, they caved in.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To take action on the basis that another person is bluffing."
      ],
      "id": "en-call_someone's_bluff-en-verb-davM8ai5",
      "links": [
        [
          "action",
          "action"
        ],
        [
          "bluffing",
          "bluffing"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To take action on the basis that another person is bluffing."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-call someone's bluff.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/08/En-au-call_someone%27s_bluff.ogg/En-au-call_someone%27s_bluff.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/En-au-call_someone%27s_bluff.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "call someone's bluff"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "calls someone's bluff",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "calling someone's bluff",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "called someone's bluff",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "called someone's bluff",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "call<> someone's bluff"
      },
      "expansion": "call someone's bluff (third-person singular simple present calls someone's bluff, present participle calling someone's bluff, simple past and past participle called someone's bluff)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She was tempted to call his bluff, hardly believing that he would carry out his threat.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 December 14, Christian Wolmar, “Productivity should play no part in pay negotiations”, in RAIL, number 972, page 46:",
          "text": "Eventually the NUR overplayed its hands with an all-out strike. And when Peter Parker, the then-chairman of BR, who was well regarded among his staff, called their bluff by threatening to close down the entire network, they caved in.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To take action on the basis that another person is bluffing."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "action",
          "action"
        ],
        [
          "bluffing",
          "bluffing"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To take action on the basis that another person is bluffing."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-call someone's bluff.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/08/En-au-call_someone%27s_bluff.ogg/En-au-call_someone%27s_bluff.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/En-au-call_someone%27s_bluff.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "call someone's bluff"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-22 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (9e2b7d3 and f2e72e5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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