call someone's bluff

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (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)

1. (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.