See play possum on Wiktionary
Download JSON data for play possum meaning in All languages combined (7.4kB)
{
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "play"
},
"expansion": "play",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "possum"
},
"expansion": "possum",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "opossum"
},
"expansion": "opossum",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "Virginia opossum"
},
"expansion": "Virginia opossum",
"name": "vern"
}
],
"etymology_text": "English play + possum (from opossum), from the behaviour of the Virginia opossum, feigning death when threatened. First documented 1822.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "plays possum",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "playing possum",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "played possum",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "played possum",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "play possum (third-person singular simple present plays possum, present participle playing possum, simple past and past participle played possum)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"word": "sham Abram"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"word": "sham Abraham"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "53 4 42",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Thinking fast, we played possum, hoping the bear wouldn't bother us.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "The soldier played possum, fooling the sniper.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "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."
}
],
"glosses": [
"To feign death; to remain quiet and still to escape attention or remain undetected; to lie low."
],
"id": "en-play_possum-en-verb-Z0oHm6AI",
"links": [
[
"feign",
"feign"
],
[
"lie low",
"lie low"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To feign death; to remain quiet and still to escape attention or remain undetected; to lie low."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "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.",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To feign sleep, illness, etc."
],
"id": "en-play_possum-en-verb-DO6jiNVT",
"links": [
[
"feign",
"feign"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To feign sleep, illness, etc."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "8 85 7",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"word": "alvást színlel"
},
{
"_dis1": "8 85 7",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"word": "megjátssza, hogy alszik"
},
{
"_dis1": "8 85 7",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"word": "úgy tesz, mintha aludna"
},
{
"_dis1": "8 85 7",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"topics": [
"illness",
"medicine",
"sciences"
],
"word": "betegnek tetteti magát"
},
{
"_dis1": "8 85 7",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"word": "betegséget színlel"
},
{
"_dis1": "8 85 7",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "tanukineiri o suru",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"word": "狸寝入りをする"
},
{
"_dis1": "8 85 7",
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "jamdeun cheok hada",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"word": "잠든 척 하다"
},
{
"_dis1": "8 85 7",
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"word": "låtsassova"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1833, Asa Greene, A Yankee Among the Nullifiers: An Auto-biography, page 32",
"text": "Though, as it afterwards turned out, the Yankee had money enough about him, and was merely playing the ’possum all the while.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1840, Edgar Allan Poe, The Business Man",
"text": "Never imposing upon any one myself, I suffered no one to play the possum with me.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1858, James Russell Lowell, in a letter to O.W. Holmes, collected in The Complete Writings of... p31",
"text": "You have been holding-in all this while — possumus omnes, we all play the ’possum..."
},
{
"ref": "1881, Alexander Lovett Stimson, History of the Express Business, page 354",
"text": "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 play possum sometimes.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive."
],
"id": "en-play_possum-en-verb-WO7YfeGe",
"links": [
[
"dissemble",
"dissemble"
],
[
"ignorance",
"ignorance"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, dated) To dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive."
],
"tags": [
"dated",
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "9 6 85",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "(dated in English) to dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive",
"word": "tudatlanságot színlel"
},
{
"_dis1": "9 6 85",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "(dated in English) to dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive",
"word": "úgy tesz, mintha semmiről nem tudna semmit"
},
{
"_dis1": "9 6 85",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "(dated in English) to dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive",
"word": "játssza a tudatlant"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-play possum.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1c/En-au-play_possum.ogg/En-au-play_possum.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/En-au-play_possum.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"word": "act possum"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"tags": [
"verb"
],
"word": "possum"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"word": "faire le mort"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "ka",
"lang": "Georgian",
"roman": "tavs imḳvdarunebs",
"word": "თავს იმკვდარუნებს"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"word": "sich tot stellen"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "káno ton psófio korió",
"word": "κάνω τον ψόφιο κοριό"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"word": "halottnak tetteti magát"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"word": "nem ad életjelet"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "hu",
"english": "to lie low",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"word": "meglapul"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"word": "lapul"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"word": "lapít"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"word": "fingersi morto"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "jugeun cheok hada",
"word": "죽은 척 하다"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "ckb",
"lang": "Central Kurdish",
"roman": "segesege kirdin",
"word": "سەگەسەگە کردن"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"word": "fingir-se de morto"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"word": "fazer-se de morto"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"word": "hacerse el muerto"
},
{
"_dis1": "31 34 35",
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"word": "spela död"
}
],
"word": "play possum"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English terms with audio links",
"English verbs",
"Entries missing English vernacular names of taxa"
],
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{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "play"
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"expansion": "play",
"name": "m"
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{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "possum"
},
"expansion": "possum",
"name": "m"
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{
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"1": "en",
"2": "opossum"
},
"expansion": "opossum",
"name": "m"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "Virginia opossum"
},
"expansion": "Virginia opossum",
"name": "vern"
}
],
"etymology_text": "English play + possum (from opossum), from the behaviour of the Virginia opossum, feigning death when threatened. First documented 1822.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "plays possum",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "playing possum",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "played possum",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "played possum",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "play possum (third-person singular simple present plays possum, present participle playing possum, simple past and past participle played possum)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"word": "sham Abram"
},
{
"word": "sham Abraham"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Thinking fast, we played possum, hoping the bear wouldn't bother us.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "The soldier played possum, fooling the sniper.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"text": "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."
}
],
"glosses": [
"To feign death; to remain quiet and still to escape attention or remain undetected; to lie low."
],
"links": [
[
"feign",
"feign"
],
[
"lie low",
"lie low"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To feign death; to remain quiet and still to escape attention or remain undetected; to lie low."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "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.",
"type": "example"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To feign sleep, illness, etc."
],
"links": [
[
"feign",
"feign"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To feign sleep, illness, etc."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English dated terms",
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1833, Asa Greene, A Yankee Among the Nullifiers: An Auto-biography, page 32",
"text": "Though, as it afterwards turned out, the Yankee had money enough about him, and was merely playing the ’possum all the while.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1840, Edgar Allan Poe, The Business Man",
"text": "Never imposing upon any one myself, I suffered no one to play the possum with me.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1858, James Russell Lowell, in a letter to O.W. Holmes, collected in The Complete Writings of... p31",
"text": "You have been holding-in all this while — possumus omnes, we all play the ’possum..."
},
{
"ref": "1881, Alexander Lovett Stimson, History of the Express Business, page 354",
"text": "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 play possum sometimes.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive."
],
"links": [
[
"dissemble",
"dissemble"
],
[
"ignorance",
"ignorance"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, dated) To dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive."
],
"tags": [
"dated",
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-play possum.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1c/En-au-play_possum.ogg/En-au-play_possum.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/En-au-play_possum.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "act possum"
},
{
"tags": [
"verb"
],
"word": "possum"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"word": "faire le mort"
},
{
"code": "ka",
"lang": "Georgian",
"roman": "tavs imḳvdarunebs",
"word": "თავს იმკვდარუნებს"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"word": "sich tot stellen"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "káno ton psófio korió",
"word": "κάνω τον ψόφιο κοριό"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"word": "halottnak tetteti magát"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"word": "nem ad életjelet"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"english": "to lie low",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"word": "meglapul"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"word": "lapul"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"word": "lapít"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"word": "fingersi morto"
},
{
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "jugeun cheok hada",
"word": "죽은 척 하다"
},
{
"code": "ckb",
"lang": "Central Kurdish",
"roman": "segesege kirdin",
"word": "سەگەسەگە کردن"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"word": "fingir-se de morto"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"word": "fazer-se de morto"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"word": "hacerse el muerto"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"word": "spela död"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"word": "alvást színlel"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"word": "megjátssza, hogy alszik"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"word": "úgy tesz, mintha aludna"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"topics": [
"illness",
"medicine",
"sciences"
],
"word": "betegnek tetteti magát"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"word": "betegséget színlel"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "tanukineiri o suru",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"word": "狸寝入りをする"
},
{
"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "jamdeun cheok hada",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"word": "잠든 척 하다"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "to feign sleep, illness, etc.",
"word": "låtsassova"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "(dated in English) to dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive",
"word": "tudatlanságot színlel"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "(dated in English) to dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive",
"word": "úgy tesz, mintha semmiről nem tudna semmit"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "(dated in English) to dissemble or to feign ignorance; to disguise or conceal something in order to deceive",
"word": "játssza a tudatlant"
}
],
"word": "play possum"
}
{
"called_from": "page/2517",
"msg": "UNIMPLEMENTED parse_translation_template: trans-top-see {1: 'to pretend to be dead; lie low', 2: 'lie low'}",
"path": [
"play possum",
"trans-top-see"
],
"section": "English",
"subsection": "verb",
"title": "play possum",
"trace": ""
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.