| Definitions | | play possum |
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verb (inf=to play possum, plays possum, playing possum, played possum)
- (idiom) to feign death; to remain quiet and still to escape attention or remain undetected; to lay low.
- Thinking fast, we played possum hoping the bear wouldn't bother us.
- The soldier played possum, fooling the sniper.
- 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.
- (idiom) to feign sleep, illness, etc.
- When we used to get home late at night, I would so my daddy would carry me inside and put me in bed.
- (idiom, dated) to dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive.
- 1833, Asa Greene, A Yankee Among the Nullifiers: An Auto-biography, http://books.google.com/books?id=ko4sW-LohpIC&pg=PA32&dq=%22playing+the+possum%22&lr= p32
- :Though, as it afterwards turned out, the Yankee had money enough about him, and was merely playing the "possum all the while.
- 1840, w:Edgar_Allen_Poe, Edgar Allen Poe, s:The_Business_Man, The Business Man, http://books.google.com/books?id=60cMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA166&dq=%22play+the+possum%22&lr=&as_brr=1
- :Never imposing upon any one myself, I suffered no one to play the possum with me.
- 1858, w:James_Russell_Lowell, James Russell Lowell, in a letter to w:Oliver_Wendell_Holmes,_Sr., O.W. Holmes, collected in The Complete Writings of... http://books.google.com/books?id=ntQ6AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA31&dq=%22play+the+possum%22&lr=
- PPA31,M1 p31
- :You have been holding-in all this while " possumus omnes, we all play the "possum...
- 1881, Alexander Lovett Stimson, History of the Express Business'', http://books.google.com/books?id=S6QaKvPM8uAC&pg=RA1-PA354&dq=%22play+possum%22&lr= p354
- :As none came with the coach from Deadwood, I suppose the amount of funds was insignificant. You can't tell, though, for the stage company is liable to sometimes.
Translations: Etymology: English (term, play) + (term, possum) (from (term, opossum)), for the animal"s tendency to pretend to be dead when threatened. First documented 1822.
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