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Glite Dictionary
to bluff one's way through

to bluff one's way through

1 7.4
Succeed in a difficult situation by pretending to know what you are doing
  • phrasal verb
  • /blʌf wʌnz weɪ θru/
  • Informal
translation icon : salir del paso
  • Adrift, hoping to bluff your way through.
  • try to bluff your way through

Examples

  • He managed to bluff his way through the presentation even though he was unprepared.

  • The employee at first tried to bluff their way through, but soon realized they were in over their head.

    Blog text (7)

  • Lisa and his bunch fought with the Rees, beat back the Mandans, and bluffed their way through the Assinboines.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • I'm an inexperienced girl who'’s trying to bluff her way through.

    The Tuxedo (2002)

  • When you are sitting in front of an audience of publishers, editors, and librarians having to justify why you do and don't like a book, it's harder to bluff your way through, and often votes change due to the discussion that takes place at the table.

    Blog text (25)

  • During the interview, she tried to bluff her way through by exaggerating her experience.

  • When asked difficult questions, he decided to bluff his way through with vague responses.

Synonyms

to trick
vsto bluff one's way through
326 3.5

To make someone believe something false so you can get what you want

uses pretending to have ability or confidence to succeed in difficulty
to bull
vsto bluff one's way through
  • Slang
79 9.3

To speak in a way that tries to trick someone

uses false confidence to succeed in a difficult situation
to bullcrap
vsto bluff one's way through
  • Offensive
1 9.6

To try to trick someone by saying things that are not true

pretend to have skills or knowledge to get through a hard situation

Antonyms

to fail
898 1.0

Not succeed in doing something you wanted to do

How Deceptive

to swindle
20 5.5
to deceive
270 3.9
to bluff one's way through
  • Informal
1 7.4
to pretend
∞ 2.3

Surface Forms

bluff one's way through infinitive
bluffed one's way through past
bluffed one's way through past participle
bluffing one's way through present participle
bluffs one's way through third person singular

Morphology

bluff + one's + way + through

The meaning is directly compositional: 'bluff' (to deceive) describes the method, while 'one's way through' means to get through or manage a situation by a particular manner. This common 'X one's way through' construction maps transparently to 'manage to succeed by X', so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Bluff one's way through comes from card games, where to bluff means to pretend you have better cards and make other players give up so you can win. That's why bluff one's way through means 'to get through a hard situation by pretending or tricking people'.