possum
Use Possum in a sentence
əm
Idioms
3.
play possum, Informal.
a.
to feign sleep or death.
b.
to dissemble or pretend ignorance: The baseball broke the window, but the children played possum when asked who had thrown it.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To possum
Collins
World English Dictionary
possum (ˈpɒsəm) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —n | |
| 1. | an informal name for opossum |
| 2. | (Austral), (NZ) Also called: phalanger any of various Australasian arboreal marsupials, such as Trichosurus vulpecula (brush-tailed phalanger), having dense fur and a long tail: family Phalangeridae |
| 3. | play possum to pretend to be dead, ignorant, asleep, etc, in order to deceive an opponent |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
00:10
Possum
is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
| a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes. |
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
possum
1613, shortened form of opossum (q.v.). Phrase play possum is first recorded 1822.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Example sentences
One of them dies, and the other survives by playing possum using his friend's blood as a disguise.
Then a possum decided to make my compost pile his nightly hangout.
We have neighbors with dogs, and a possum that sits on the fence in the evening, so our dogs do bark.
The inquest was perfunctory, as if a possum had been washed ashore.
Idioms & Phrases
Nearby Words
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