playact
Americanverb (used without object)
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to engage in make-believe.
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to be insincere or affected in speech, manner, etc..
It's hard to get away with playacting with members of one's own family.
-
to perform in a play.
verb (used with object)
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of playact
1895–1900; back formation from playacting; see play, act, -ing 1
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.
As a youngster, Brian liked to playact with the toys he made.
From Washington Post • Sep. 29, 2020
Do today’s guests want a 19th-century stage set on which to playact high society?
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 23, 2016
Giving them authority over arbitrarily defined transgressors can prompt brutality, as the Stanford Prison Experiment—in which students were assigned to playact the roles of either guards or prisoners—showed in the 1970s.
From Time • Jan. 13, 2015
Mr. Hassell, whose dark good looks bespeak a natural gravity, manages this transition effectively, hinting at a growing disapproval of Falstaff in the delightful scene in which they playact an encounter between prince and king.
From New York Times • Dec. 22, 2014
The obvious response is that they never let us do anything but playact with our guns.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
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.
