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Glite Dictionary
to play possum

to play possum

5 8.4
Pretend to be dead or asleep to avoid danger
  • idiom
  • /pleɪ ˈpɑsəm/
  • Informal
translation icon : hacerse el muerto
  • Joe is just playing possum.
  • just play possum

Examples

  • Willie, you just stop playing possum and go to sleep.

    This Property Is Condemned (1966)

  • She checked to see if he was playing possum.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Look, we're gonna play possum, all right?

    The Last Full Measure (2020)

  • Well, we can play possum too.

    Hell and High Water (1954)

  • All I could do was lie there playing possum.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Gene had come in just in time to catch our daddy playing possum.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • No, it looks like he's playing possum.

    Unbelievable!!!!! (2020)

  • I've been lying here playing possum.

    Finding Hulk Hogan (2010)

  • Her body is so limp she must be playing possum.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • When the dog started barking unexpectedly, she quickly decided to play possum and lay still on the ground.

Synonyms

to play the wag
vsto play possum
  • UK
9.9

Pretend to be ill to avoid going to work or school

pretends to be dead asleep or inactive to avoid danger or attention

Antonyms

to engage
676 3.4

To take part in an activity

to confront
359 4.4

Face a difficult problem or fear directly and bravely

Surface Forms

play possum infinitive
played possum past
played possum past participle
playing possum present participle
plays possum third person singular

Morphology

play + possum

The verb 'play' (to pretend) combined with the noun 'possum' invites the interpretation 'act like a possum', so a learner could partly infer that it means to pretend. However, understanding the full sense ('feign death or sleep') requires cultural/biological knowledge that possums commonly 'play dead', which is not guaranteed at B1 and is not transparent across all languages/cultures. Because the compositional logic is only clear if one knows that specific animal behavior, the expression is only partially predictable.

Etymology

Play possum comes from the opossum, an animal that sometimes lies very still and looks dead by seeming to play dead like a possum. That's why play possum means 'to pretend to be dead, asleep, or inactive'.