play dumb
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play dumb
verb plays dumb · playing dumb · played dumb
- To feign muteness. I played dumb 'cause I knew if I talked at all, being simple and guileless, you all would twist me up and have the whole thing in a jiffy.
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To feign stupidity or ignorance of some knowledge, usually in order to avoid responsibility or gain some advantage.
Died. Virginia Hill, 49, redheaded, free-spending playmate of the underworld... who later acted out a cameo role before the late Senator Estes Kefauver's Senate crime committee, playing dumb about the business dealings of her many racketeer friends.
Similar: play stupid
Translations
Every language
verb to pretend to be mute
| Deutsch | Stummheit vortäuschen, vorgeben stumm zu sein |
|---|
verb to pretend to be slow-witted
| Español | hacerse el sueco, hacerse el longuis, hacerse el/la de las gafas, hacerse el tonto, desentenderse, sota |
|---|---|
| Português | fazer-se de tonto |
| Français | faire l'innocent |
| Deutsch | sich dumm stellen, (einen) auf dumm machen |
| Italiano | fare lo gnorri, fare l'innocente, fare il finto tonto |
| Română | face pe prostul |
| Русский | приду́риваться pridúrivatʹsja |
Talk about this word "play dumb." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/play%20dumb. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. play dumb. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/play%20dumb "play dumb." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/play%20dumb.
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@misc{play_dumb_2026,
title = {play dumb},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/play%20dumb},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
