I encountered the following sentence, the meaning of which I couldn't get even after looking up in dictionaries and googling.
Still, it might seem costless to bluff – until the hand was called. (Source)
Learn English – Meaning of “until the hand is called”
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Here, "Okay doesn't even begin to cover it" means "The word okay is so inadequate that it does not even have the slightest chance of describing [topic]."
From Oxford Dictionaries Online:
- [no object with negative] informal Not have any chance or likelihood of doing a specified thing
- Deal with (a subject) by describing or analyzing its most important aspects or events
More generally, "doesn't even begin to..." is used when you want say that something is extremely lacking; that it does not have any chance of accomplishing the goal that it intends to. Some examples of proper ways to use "doesn't even begin to...", from the above source:
Indeed, even today, one cannot begin to comprehend the appalling fate suffered by these two young girls.
He concluded by saying that we couldn't even begin to comprehend what one day in his shoes would be like.
Clearly this too is an honour that most of you have little chance of even beginning to aspire to.
Once you connect the dots in sequential sequence in a dot-to-dot puzzle, the picture will be revealed.
(Picture by Whitney Waller, CC BY-SA 2.0) Solution:
Best Answer
Those terms are originally referring to the card game poker:
One principle of the game is that the players will continue to bet money on the cards they have (called hand). If a player fears that he has the hand with the lesser value, he may fold, i.e. give up the round or bluff, i.e. continue to raise the money on the table, aka the stakes - hoping that the others will fold, under the assumption that the bluffing player’s hand is truly valuable.
At some point in the game, unless all other players fold, a player may request that the hands of the remaining players are shown, that’s the time when the value of the cards is checked and the player with the best cards wins the stake. That’s also the time when a bluff becomes obvious. If a player suspects that his opponent is bluffing, he will call his bluff by doing just this.
In your example, the poker terms are used to describe a similar pattern in politics: Making empty threats or exaggerating one’s strength or willingness to act is easy, following through may be a lot harder.