Adjective : a big, bluff, generous man. ,a bluff, precipitous headland. From Dictionary.com.
He combines California informality with north-of-England bluffness. From Wordnik.com. [February 2006] Reference
Englishmen extolled for their native flavour of bluntness and bluffness. From Wordnik.com. [English Travellers of the Renaissance] Reference
The big man was a lot more devious than his size or his bluffness suggested. From Wordnik.com. [Cities In Flight]
For certain its owner had none, unless a lurking pride in his own bluffness and bluntness may be termed such. From Wordnik.com. [The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 288, Supplementary Number] Reference
Dickens, dallying with more than one woman, was about to separate his wife from her children: David Rintoul gives him bluffness and a beard like an erection. From Wordnik.com. [Andersen's English] Reference
The convict population spoke of him as "that — — Frere," and registered vows of vengeance against him, which he laughed — in his bluffness — to scorn. From Wordnik.com. [For the term of his natural life] Reference
Mrs Collins was too overcome to attend us, and the Admiral giving me his arm, we set off through the Park, he speaking his mind with the bluffness of a sailor on Miss Darcy's behaviour. From Wordnik.com. [The Ladies A Shining Constellation of Wit and Beauty] Reference
Potential employers and customers need to know that men are indeed capable of "emotional labor," but they may practice it differently, with more bluffness, more teasing, more ... noise. From Wordnik.com. [Lance Mannion:] Reference
Giving the voice in the dark such short answer, refusing to satisfy him, as the question deserved, and with responsive bluffness, we left the man behind, who, it proved, was bound to our inn. From Wordnik.com. [Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 54, No. 338, December 1843] Reference
His note was one of joviality, almost of bluffness. From Wordnik.com. [Will Warburton] Reference
"Who are you?" he asked, with the bluffness and arrogance of a native of. From Wordnik.com. [The Gold Hunters' Adventures Or, Life in Australia] Reference
Her bluffness is refreshing and she's disappointed we're not co-religionists. From Wordnik.com. [Anecdotal Evidence] Reference
He could borrow with a breezy bluffness which made the thing practically a hold-up. From Wordnik.com. [The Man Upstairs and Other Stories] Reference
But the hearty gentleman scattered her secret terrors by his bluffness and openness. From Wordnik.com. [Beauchamp's Career — Complete] Reference
Kennicott's bluffness made the child squirm with a delight which Carol could not evoke. From Wordnik.com. [Main Street] Reference
"A trifle o 'bluffness in the entry don't matter, if you understand me," said 'Bias, retrieving his lesson. From Wordnik.com. [Hocken and Hunken] Reference
It is very easy for modern historians and biographers to speak with genial applause of the prophet's manly bluffness. From Wordnik.com. [John Knox and the Reformation]
There was a moment's silence, then in a voice from which all the first bluffness was studiously excluded, Scannel said. From Wordnik.com. [The Pit] Reference
As for his bluffness and toughness and appeals to common sense, all that is, of course, simply the first trick of rhetoric. From Wordnik.com. [Heretics] Reference
The secretary was a stolid Yorkshireman, who affected whatever measure of bluffness had not been natural to him from birth. From Wordnik.com. [A Son of Hagar A Romance of Our Time] Reference
"My dear Mrs. Florio" -- Piers began with good-natured expostulation, a sort of forced bluffness; but she would not hear him. From Wordnik.com. [The Crown of Life] Reference
Receiving no answer to this or the questions which follow, save by signs of the head, he with the bluffness we remember offers a reprimand. From Wordnik.com. [The Wagnerian Romances] Reference
But there was more than an East Anglian bluffness in the statement and the manner of its delivery, as his next observation at once explained. From Wordnik.com. [The Last Hope] Reference
"Oh, well!" he exclaimed, with a sudden change to loudness and bluffness, switching on the electric torch and turning it on the earth at their feet. From Wordnik.com. [The Judge] Reference
The out-of-door bluffness, the cheery ringing voice, and the upright form only to be gained in the saddle over the breezy uplands, cling to him still. From Wordnik.com. [Hodge and His Masters] Reference
"Visit as many shrines as you like, so as you visit the Duke as well," answered De Baudricourt, who always spoke with a sort of rough bluffness to the Maid, not unkindly, though it lacked gentleness. From Wordnik.com. [A Heroine of France] Reference
The reckless loyalty, with its animal spirits and its dash of grief, the bitterer because grief must be dismissed, of the Cavalier Tunes, is true to England and to the time in its heartiness and gallant bluffness. From Wordnik.com. [Robert Browning]
Bob admired him openly and without shame, because he was the best rider in Arizona; Kate seemed to be on the best of terms with him, and Luck treated him with the offhand bluffness he might have used toward a grown son. From Wordnik.com. [Crooked Trails and Straight] Reference
Desnoyers did not know exactly what this much-admired seriousness could be, but he felt a secret pride in seeing him aggressive with everybody else, even his family, whilst he took with him a tone of paternal bluffness. From Wordnik.com. [The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. (Los Cuatro Jinetes del Apocalipsis) from the Spanish of Vincente Blasco Ibanez; authorized translation by Charlotte Brewster Jordan.] Reference
You’re sort of copying Matt’s bluffness, without his wit. From Wordnik.com. [Matthew Yglesias » Planning to Fail] Reference
For all his bluffness, he was a good sort, and I never thought I'd find a consort. ". From Wordnik.com. [The Soprano Sorceress]
Kennicott’s bluffness made the child squirm with a delight which Carol could not evoke. From Wordnik.com. [Main Street] Reference
Longstaff was amused to note that Monsey had remained silent throughout the meal, agitated by Struan’s bluffness. From Wordnik.com. [Tai-Pan]
Old England forever! "and there was general laughter, for my usual heartiness and general bluffness had earned me the name of being some-thing of a John Bull. From Wordnik.com. [Flashman]
A man who has felt a good deal of the world, that heavy endurance and patient bluffness are safer to get through the waves somehow than sensitive fibre and elegant frame. From Wordnik.com. [Springhaven : a Tale of the Great War] Reference
Ha Rou! "cried Taillefer, with his usual bluffness, and laughing with great glee," why wouldst thou not listen to me, monseigneur? ". From Wordnik.com. [Harold : the Last of the Saxon Kings — Complete] Reference
His manner is frank to the point of bluffness. From Wordnik.com. [The Story of the Great War, Volume I (of 8) Introductions; Special Articles; Causes of War; Diplomatic and State Papers] Reference
A kind of infinitely sublimated bluffness. ". From Wordnik.com. [My Friend Prospero] Reference
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