possum

UK: /ˈpɒsəm/ US: /ˈpɑsəm/ ,(pos′əm)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

pos•sum /ˈpɑsəm/   n. [countable] , pl. -sums, (esp. when thought of as a group) -sum. 

1. Mammals opossum.

Idioms

2. Idioms play possum, to pretend to be asleep or dead:
   She was lying in bed playing possum.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

pos•sum  (pos′əm), n. 

1. Mammals opossum.
2. Idioms play possum, [Informal.]
   • to feign sleep or death.
   • to dissemble or pretend ignorance:
     The baseball broke the window, but the children played possum when asked who had thrown it.
3. British Terms [Australian.] any of various phalangers, esp. of the genus Trichosurus.

• short for opossum 1605–15, American.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

possum / ˈpɒsəm/ noun

1. an informal name for opossum1
2. 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