Imposing on another with a show of force, where no real force exists: a phrase taken from the game of poker.
1850. I cannot look upon the effort of Texas in any other light than a bluffing, brow-beating game, to wrench that territory from a weaker neighbor.—Mr. Meacham of Vermont, House of Repr., May 14: Cong. Globe, p. 606, Appendix.
1854. I did not take the slightest exception to the Senator saying that he was playing a little game of brag. We both know how that game is played. I thought I would bluff back on him.—Mr. Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, U.S. Senate, May 3: Cong. Globe, p. 1070.
1885. He went his whole heart, soul, and pocket on three aces, and was bluffed by his opponent with a pair of trays.—N.Y. Weekly Sun, May 13. (N.E.D.)
1910. It was felt by the Canadians that the threat of the maximum was one that we did not dare to carry out, on account of the injury which such an increase of duties on Canadian products would inflict on our own people. They regarded it as a bluff; and, if they did not actually call the bluff, they came as near doing so as could be done without putting us in a position where we might have been compelled, for the sake of saving our face, to plunge into a tariff war, however little we liked to do so.—N.Y. Evening Post, March 31.
