bluff-headed

Adjective

bluff-headed (comparative more bluff-headed, superlative most bluff-headed)

1. Built with the stem nearly vertical, as opposed to one with a rake that extends far beyond the keel.
   • Some are constructed with a view to carrying a large cargo, and are broad, and what is technically termed "bluff-headed," whilst others are designed for fast sailing.1869, “Household Amusements: Model Ship-Building”, in Cassell's household guide, volume 4, page 17
   • […] of a bluff-headed boat beating to windward in a choppy sea.1888, Walter Raymond, Misterton's Mistake, page 354
2. (broadly) Having a broad, precipitous front or face.
   • Do you not see that low bluff-headed mountain?1844, “Tahiti”, in The Juvenile Missionary Magazine, volume 3, number 31, page 271
   • Leaving behind us the town at the bottom of its deep bay, we set out to explore a bluff-headed parallelogramical promontory, bounded by Thurso Bay on the one hand, and Murkle Bay on the other, and which presents to the open sea, in the space that stretches between, an undulating line of iron-bound...1857, Hugh Miller, The Cruise of the Betsey
3. Having a rounded head with a flattish snout.
   • The Alpine mastiffs resemble the dogs of Newfoundland, but are somewhat more bluff-headed.1833, The Religious Souvenir, a Christmas, New Year's and Birthday Present, page 51
   • The members of this subgenus may always be readily distinguished by their bluff-headed and arvicoline aspect.1881, Oldfield Thomas, “On the Indian Species of the Genus Mus”, in The Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society of London, page 523
4. (broadly) Having a rounded tip, as opposed to a flat or pointed tip.
   • Mr. Crozier prefers to employ a bluff headed projectile, formed with the punch in a slight concave with rounded outer edges; as that shape will not detract from the weight of the head so much as the spherical, and if the projectile can be thrown without rotary motion, a hexagonal punch might be...1862, “Armour Plates and Projectiles”, in The Artizan, volume 20, page 273
   • The hole made by a round or bluff-headed shot is of the same conical form as that made by a flat-headed projectile, but with a pointed shot the sides of the hole are more nearly parallel, the reason probably being, that a conical hole, of small diameter, is at first broken out by the action of the...1883, Sir William Armstrong, “Report of the Admiralty Committee on Designs for Ships of War, 1871: Paper A (On Gunnery”, in Earl Thomas Brassey, editor, The British Navy: Its Strength, Resources, and...
5. Having a broad face and gruff manners, especially when not exceptionally clever or assertive.
   • I beseech every man who may read this to be perfectly convinced that I feel no pity for these bluff-headed fellows.1823 March 15, William Cobbett, “To Mr. Ricardo, On his proposition for dividing the land, in order to pay off the National Debt”, in Cobbett's Political Register, volume 45, number 11, page 651
   • Whether is it the African Negro, with his thick lips, flat nose, woolly head, and sable hide; the copper-colored Maroon; the stunted, blubber-eating Esquimaux; the filthy, goose-rumped Hottentot; or the bluff- headed, red-faced, potbellied John Bull?1872, William Watts, Paradise Lost : Or, The Great Dragon Cast Out, page 16