# play possum

> English word · Verb

## Definitions
1. To feign death; to remain quiet and still to escape attention or remain undetected; to lie low.
2. To feign sleep, illness, etc.
3. To dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive.

## Etymology
From play + possum (“from opposum”), from the behavior of the Virginia opossum, which feigns death when threatened. First use appears c. 1807.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/play-possum