pokerish expression
- noun
- Informal
:
expresión de póker
- She maintained a pokerish expression throughout the heated negotiation, giving nothing away.
Examples
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His pokerish expression made it impossible for his opponents to guess his next move.
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Even when she heard the surprising news, she kept a pokerish expression on her face.
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She maintained a pokerish expression throughout the meeting.
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His pokerish expression made it hard to read his thoughts.
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Even when she heard the surprising news, she kept a pokerish expression on her face.
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His pokerish expression made it impossible for his opponents to guess his next move.
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She maintained a pokerish expression throughout the heated negotiation, giving nothing away.
Synonyms
12
4.8
A face that shows no feeling so others cannot tell what you feel
1
6.0
A happy appearance that hides true feelings
How Revealing
Surface Forms
Morphology
pokerish + expression
The adjective 'pokerish' is formed from 'poker' + '-ish' and evokes the idea of a 'poker face' — an unemotional, concealing manner — while 'expression' is literal. A learner who knows the parts can partially infer that it means an expression that hides feelings, but the metaphorical link to poker and the cultural idiom is not fully transparent to a B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
Pokerish expression comes from the card game poker, where players keep a calm expression so other people cannot guess their cards or see their feelings. That's why it now means 'showing no feelings' or 'hiding what someone really thinks'.