poker face
12
4.8
- noun
- /ˈpoʊkər feɪs/
- Informal
:
cara de póker
- Let's see that poker face.
- keeps a poker face
- put on a poker face
- maintains a poker face
We're taught to have a poker face, for example.
- We're taught to have a poker face, for example.
- It just looks so bad, you know, And I don't have a poker face whatsoever.
- Or you put the blue streaks in your hair because it's fun and you just go poker face when they intrude and then you just shrug and you disengage.
- But really, what a good poker face is, is just being relaxed and natural and showing that you're comfortable even when you're not.
- They might give you a poker face, OK, because maybe they don't want to give you anything during this time frame.
- Ladies, I want you to know between poker face, your honor pose, Russian doll loot, etcetera, I could go on.
- Now it's clear that Juan wants to keep his poker face pretty good at it, and it doesn't want to play along with the teasing and hinting game that Michael Dell was maybe going for.
Examples
-
Enid maintains a poker face for several long seconds before she bursts into tears, utterly defeated.
Fiction book (2001) -
"Look, it's my poker face," he says.
Fiction book (1999) -
We're taught to have a poker face, for example.
-
Gotta love that, uh, poker face.
-
Quite a poker face you have, chief.
-
Better work on that poker face.
-
Top law school, sure, but do you have a good poker face?
Fiction book (2001) -
Billy kept his poker face on, just like Granddaddy Carl had taught him.
Fiction book (1998) -
Kaffee and Sam are dying, but they're trying to keep their poker faces.
Fiction book (1992) -
The secret is to put your poker face on when buying a new home.
Synonyms
34
3.9
A face that shows no feeling, often to avoid laughing
1
5.1
A serious face that shows little or no emotion
A face that shows no feelings so others cannot guess what someone thinks
Antonyms
How Revealing
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from the constituents: 'poker' evokes a game where players hide their emotions and 'face' denotes one's visible expression, so 'poker face' naturally denotes an expression that conceals feelings. This compositional logic is transparent and widely known/borrowed across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely infer the meaning.
Etymology
Poker face comes from the card game poker, where players keep a calm face so others cannot read their thoughts or feelings. That's why today a poker face means an expression used 'to hide your feelings or intentions'.