play possum

Verb

play possum (third-person singular simple present plays possum, present participle playing possum, simple past and past participle played possum)

1. (idiomatic) To feign death; to remain quiet and still to escape attention or remain undetected; to lie low.
   • Thinking fast, we played possum, hoping the bear wouldn't bother us.
   • The soldier played possum, fooling the sniper.
2. (idiomatic) To feign sleep, illness, etc.
   • When we used to get home late at night, I would play possum so my daddy would carry me inside and put me in bed.
3. (dated, idiomatic) To dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive.
   • Though, as it afterwards turned out, the Yankee had money enough about him, and was merely playing the ’possum all the while.1833, Asa Greene, A Yankee Among the Nullifiers: An Auto-biography, page 32
   • Never imposing upon any one myself, I suffered no one to play the possum with me.1840, Edgar Allan Poe, The Business Man