play dumb
Act blissfully unaware
To play dumb is to feign ignorance or incomprehension, usually to avoid responsibility or gain advantage: When the cops asked about the missing money, he played dumb.
The phrase implies deliberate strategy rather than actual confusion—pretending not to know something you clearly do.
Act as though
- actDeed or performance
- fakeNot the real thing
- simulateImitate through modeling
- shamFraudulent imitation
bluff · pose · affect · masquerade · counterfeit · put on · keep mum
Lacking any understanding
- obliviousLacking any awareness
- innocentFree from moral wrong
- naiveInnocently unsuspecting
- unawareLacking knowledge of something
unknowing · blank stare · wide-eyed · bewildered · confused · puzzled · dense · slow
Cause false belief
bamboozle · trick · fool · beguile · dissemble · dissimulate · fabricate · falsify
Planned action for advantage
- subterfugeDeliberate deception to conceal
- guileSly, strategic dishonesty
- cunningSly, scheming cleverness
- artificeClever deceptive strategy
maneuver · scheme · wile · calculated · poker face · shrewdness · ploy · gambit
pretend
Act as though
sham · bluff · pose · affect · masquerade · counterfeit · put on · keep mum
clueless
Lacking any understanding
unaware · unknowing · blank stare · wide-eyed · bewildered · confused · puzzled · dense · slow · dim
deceive
Cause false belief
con · bamboozle · trick · fool · beguile · dissemble · dissimulate · fabricate · falsify · manipulate
tactic
Planned action for advantage
- subterfugeDeliberate deception to conceal
- guileSly, strategic dishonesty
- cunningSly, scheming cleverness
artifice · maneuver · scheme · wile · calculated · poker face · shrewdness · ploy · gambit · ruse
- putting on an actput on an act, pretend, fake it, masquerade, sham
- turn a blind eyeignore, overlook, disregard, look away, willful blindness
- deceptionlie, lies, lying, fake, fraud
- evasionevasion, avoiding, avoids, evade, dodging
- dismissingbrush aside, brush off, wave off, shrug off, blow off
- hush commandsshh, shhh, ssh, hush up, be silent
play dumbcome clean
Admit the full truth
confess · spill the beans · let on · fess up · tell all
play dumbshow off
Boast through display
put one's cards on the table · be authentic · show one's true colors · flex · grandstand
play, dumb, player, playful, dummy, playing, played, plays, playfully