to play dumb
34
6.7
- phrasal verb
- /pleɪ dʌm/
- Informal
:
hacerse el tonto
- When asked about the missing money, he decided to play dumb and claimed he had no idea what happened.
- just play dumb
- stop playing dumb
- smart to play dumb
He's that's the thing though, when you're not aware you can't then I don't know, you can't then play dumb.
- He's that's the thing though, when you're not aware you can't then I don't know, you can't then play dumb.
- I've had ones where the contestant sort of tries to play dumb, and that's fun, but the real thing is so much better.
- I think, I mean, literally, I didn't know whether Sam was smart or dumb, you know, whether he was playing dumb.
- All right, now, sometimes a woman can play dumb, and if the man is dumb enough, he's not going to catch no shade to the man, right?
Examples
-
Realizing she was about to fall victim to a case of ambush journalism, Diana tried to play dumb.
Fiction book (2000) -
- Come on, don't play dumb.
-
You gonna play dumb with me?
-
So, if he calls... just play dumb.
-
Stop playing dumb, you know what you have to do.
-
Oh, don't play dumb with me!
-
They tried to take me off the job, but I played dumb.
-
What would you suggest, Mr. Gore, should these families just play dumb and move on?
Blog text (30) -
Lucy is funny; she plays dumb and can draw information out of people in the sweetest, most innocent way.
Fiction book (1990) -
Nick goes to talk to Renard, and Renard pries about the key, but Nick plays dumb.
Blog text (34)
Antonyms
How Foolish
- Offensive
- Offensive
- Informal
3
8.0
- Informal
34
6.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb 'play' commonly has a meaning 'to act' or 'pretend', and 'dumb' can be understood as showing lack of understanding or awareness; together they compose the meaning 'pretend not to know/understand', which is directly derivable from the parts. This compositional pattern is cross-linguistically common (e.g. Spanish 'hacerse el tonto', French 'faire l'innocent'), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Play dumb comes from the image of someone acting unable to speak or understand, when they play being dumb to avoid trouble. That's why it means 'to pretend not to know or understand something'.