play-act
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See also: playact
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Verb[edit]
play-act (third-person singular simple present play-acts, present participle play-acting, simple past and past participle play-acted)
- (intransitive) To perform on stage; to act in a play.
- (transitive) To play (a scene, role etc.); to act out.
- 2019 January 11, Spencer Kornhaber, “Lady Gaga’s R. Kelly Apology Is a Reminder That Abuse Isn’t Provocative”, in The Atlantic[1]:
- 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.
- (intransitive, figuratively) To engage in pretence or insincere behavior, often in order to mislead someone or gain an advantage.
- 2020 August 24, Jennifer Senior, “Let the Culture Wars Begin. Again.”, in The New York Times[2]:
- 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 and them.
- 2020 November 20, Owen Gleiberman, “‘Happiest Season’ Review: Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis in a Christmas Rom-Com That Earns Its Emotion”, in Variety[3]:
- Abby, watching Harper give the closeted performance that she’s been giving her whole life, sees a side of her that she doesn’t like — the one who play-acts and denies herself almost too well.
- 2022 September 8, Monica Hesse, “Queen Elizabeth II did her job”, in The Washington Post[4]:
- Little girls aren’t taught to play-act at being queen. They play-act at being princesses, which is a much gauzier, more romantic kind of role.
- (transitive, figuratively) To make a pretence of; to feign or simulate.
- 2018 April 3, Nitsuh Abebe, “Why Have We Soured on the ‘Devil’s Advocate’?”, in The New York Times[5]:
- 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.
- 2020 September 6, Simon Briggs, “Novak Djokovic possesses a volcanic intensity but sometimes that fire shows itself in unflattering ways”, in The Daily Telegraph[6]:
- Asked after the match if Djokovic had been play-acting the symptoms of cramp, Murray replied “I don't know. I would hope that that wouldn't be the case. But, yeah, if it was cramp, that's a tough thing to recover from and play as well as he did at the end.”