Rate this phrase:0.0 / 0 votes

play possum

To feign death; to remain quiet and still to escape attention or remain undetected; to lay low.

Etymology:

  • English play + possum, from the behaviour of the Virginia opossum, feigning death when threatened. First documented 1822.
10 Views
“

To keep the focus away from his client, the lawyer basically played possum during the entire complex trial, and his tactic paid off with an acquittal.

Collection   Edit    

Submitted on September 01, 2009

Additional definitions for 'play possum':

play possumTo dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive.
play possumTo feign sleep, illness, etc.
See them all »

Translation

Find a translation for the play possum phrase in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Nearby phrases

Some more phrases from our dictionary similar to play possum

play silly buggersplay the fieldplay one against anotherplay onPlay Second Fiddleplay outplay outplay offplay offplay the ball and not the manplay Old Gooseberryplay onplay the ball and not the manplay old harry

How to pronounce this phrase?

Discuss this play possum phrase with the community:

0 Comments

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this play possum definition to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "play possum." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Nov. 2024. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/play-possum_6153>.

    Powered by CITE.ME Cite.Me

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest human-edited phrases collection on the web!

    Quiz

    Are you a phrases master?

    »
    The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy ____.
    A pig
    B cow
    C dog
    D horse

    Browse Phrases.com

    #ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ