play-act
Britishverb
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(intr) to pretend or make believe
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(intr) to behave in an overdramatic or affected manner
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to act in or as in (a play)
Other Word Forms
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Several times, the kids play-act the old cartoonish “Tom Sawyer” game—in which the rascal tricks his buddies into doing his fence-painting chore—and the reference is apt.
From The New Yorker • Dec. 17, 2018
They play-act traumatic scenarios, like getting a shot at the doctor’s office, in preparation for handling stressful situations in real life.
From The Verge • Dec. 22, 2017
I could play-act a bizarre kind of adulthood save for the moments where a smarter poster asked “What are you 14 or something?”
From Salon • Jul. 2, 2015
Murray cannot let himself become distracted if Djokovic starts to play-act, as he did in Melbourne in January.
From The Guardian • Jun. 5, 2015
Here was a man who understood and who would verify my true story to the faces of those sleuth-hounds who did not understand, or, at least, such was what I endeavored to play-act.
From The Road by London, Jack
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
