call someone's bluff
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English
Pronunciation
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
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)
- (idiomatic) To take action on the basis that another person is bluffing.
- She was tempted to call his bluff, hardly believing that he would carry out his threat.
- 2022 December 14, Christian Wolmar, “Productivity should play no part in pay negotiations”, in RAIL, number 972, page 46:
- 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.