BLUFF, an adjective used of a ship, meaning broad and nearly vertical in the bows (possibly connected with an obsolete Dutch word, blaf, broad). Similarly, of a cliff or shore, present ing a bold and nearly perpendicular front; of a person, good natured and frank, with a rough or abrupt manner. Another word "bluff," perhaps connected with Ger. verblu ff en, to baffle, meant originally a horse's blinker, the verb meaning to blindfold. It survives in such games as poker, where "to bluff" means to bet heavily on a hand so as to make an opponent believe it to be stronger than it is; hence the phrase "a policy of bluff."