play possum
verb
Meaning
- To feign death; to remain quiet and still to escape attention or remain undetected; to lie low.
- To feign sleep, illness, etc.
- To dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive.
Etymology / origin
From play + possum (“from opposum”), from the behavior of the Virginia opossum, which feigns death when threatened. First use appears c. 1807.
Related words
Descendant words
- 狸寝入り(Japanese) (cog)
Sources
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