play-act

verb play-acts · play-acting · play-acted · playact

1. intransitive To perform on stage; to act in a play.
2. transitive To play (a scene, role etc.); to act out. Kelly’s involvement made it a song not only about fame, but also about alleged sex across creepy power differentials. This wasn’t really even subtext: Gaga and Kelly playacted an Oval Office affair at the American Music Awards.
3. figuratively, intransitive To engage in pretence or insincere behavior, often in order to mislead someone or gain an advantage. The most Trump can imagine selling is himself, and what that self is is merely a hologram, a weightless shape. He play-acts at being a businessman. He play-acts at being a president. The only thing that’s authentic about him is his comic-book worldview, one divided between heroes and villains, us an
4. figuratively, transitive To make a pretence of; to feign or simulate. If the devil’s advocate playacts disagreement with you for the sake of strengthening your argument, the concern troll is his mirror image, a person who pretends to agree with you in order to undermine you.