Fake vs. Bluff — What's the Difference?

Not genuine; imitation or counterfeit

An attempt to deceive someone into believing that one can or is going to do something

A thing that is not genuine; a forgery or sham

A steep cliff, bank, or promontory.

Variant spelling of flake

A grove or clump of trees.

Forge or counterfeit (something)

Try to deceive someone as to one's abilities or intentions

Variant spelling of flake

Direct in speech or behaviour but in a good-natured way

Having a false or misleading appearance; fraudulent.

(of a cliff or a ship's bows) having a vertical or steep broad front.

One that is not authentic or genuine; a sham.

To engage in a false display of confidence or aggression in order to deceive or intimidate someone

(Sports) A brief feint or aborted change of direction intended to mislead one's opponent or the opposing team.

To make a display of aggression, as by charging or baring the teeth, as a means of intimidating another animal.

One loop or winding of a coiled rope or cable.

To try to mislead opponents in a card game by heavy betting on a poor hand or by little or no betting on a good one.

To contrive and present as genuine; counterfeit

To deceive or intimidate (someone) by a false display of confidence or aggression.

To simulate; feign

To try to mislead (opponents) in a card game by heavy betting on a poor hand or by little or no betting on a good one.

(Music) To improvise (a passage).

To start but not carry out (an action) as a means of deceiving or intimidating another

(Sports) To deceive (an opponent) with a fake. Often used with out.

The act or practice of bluffing.

To engage in feigning, simulation, or other deceptive activity.

A steep headland, promontory, riverbank, or cliff.

(Sports) To perform a fake.

Having or showing a rough and blunt but not unkind manner

To coil (a rope or cable).

Having a broad, steep front

Not real; false, fraudulent

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

(of people) Insincere

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

Something which is not genuine, or is presented fraudulently.

The card game poker.

(sports) A move meant to deceive an opposing player, used for gaining advantage for example when dribbling an opponent.

One who bluffs; a bluffer.

(archaic) A trick; a swindle

An excuse.

(nautical) One of the circles or windings of a cable or hawser, as it lies in a coil; a single turn or coil.

A high, steep bank, for example by a river or the sea, or beside a ravine or plain; a cliff with a broad face.

(transitive) To make a counterfeit, to counterfeit, to forge, to falsify.

(Canadian Prairies) A small wood or stand of trees, typically poplar or willow.

(transitive) To make a false display of, to affect, to feign, to simulate.

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

(archaic) To cheat; to swindle; to steal; to rob.

(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.

(archaic) To modify fraudulently, so as to make an object appear better or other than it really is

To take advantage by bluffing.

To improvise, in jazz.

To give false information intentionally; to lie; to deceive

(nautical) To coil (a rope, line, or hawser), by winding alternately in opposite directions, in layers usually of zigzag or figure of eight form, to prevent twisting when running out.

To fluff, puff or swell up.

One of the circles or windings of a cable or hawser, as it lies in a coil; a single turn or coil.

Having a broad, flattened front.

A trick; a swindle.

Rising steeply with a flat or rounded front.

To coil (a rope, line, or hawser), by winding alternately in opposite directions, in layers usually of zigzag or figure of eight form,, to prevent twisting when running out.

Surly; churlish; gruff; rough.

To cheat; to swindle; to steal; to rob.

Roughly frank and hearty in one's manners.

To make; to construct; to do.

Having a broad, flattened front; as, the bluff bows of a ship.

To manipulate fraudulently, so as to make an object appear better or other than it really is; as, to fake a bulldog, by burning his upper lip and thus artificially shortening it.

Rising steeply with a flat or rounded front.

Something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be

Surly; churlish; gruff; rough.

A person who makes deceitful pretenses

Abrupt; roughly frank; unceremonious; blunt; brusque; as, a bluff answer; a bluff manner of talking; a bluff sea captain.

(football) a deceptive move made by a football player

A high, steep bank, as by a river or the sea, or beside a ravine or plain; a cliff with a broad face.

Make a copy of with the intent to deceive;

An act of bluffing; an expression of self-confidence for the purpose of intimidation; braggadocio; as, that is only bluff, or a bluff.

Fake or falsify;

A game at cards; poker.

Talk through one's hat;

To deter (an opponent) from taking the risk of betting on his hand of cards, as the bluffer does by betting heavily on his own hand although it may be of less value.

Fraudulent; having a misleading appearance

To frighten or deter from accomplishing a purpose by making a show of confidence in one's strength or resources; as, he bluffed me off.

Not genuine or real; being an imitation of the genuine article;

To act as in the game of bluff.

A high steep bank (usually formed by river erosion)

Pretense that your position is stronger than it really is;

The act of bluffing in poker; deception by a false show of confidence in the strength of your cards

Deceive an opponent by a bold bet on an inferior hand with the result that the opponent withdraws a winning hand

Frighten someone by pretending to be stronger than one really is

Very steep; having a prominent and almost vertical front;

Bluntly direct and outspoken but good-natured;