Definition of "play-act" []

• To play a role in a dramatic performance. (verb-intransitive)
• To play a pretended role; make believe. (verb-intransitive)
• To behave in an overdramatic or artificial manner. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "They're so desperate to imagine themselves as actors in an ongoing drama that rivals the most momentous struggles in human history that they simply play-act the part, pumping up their own situation into something comically out of proportion with historical reality."
• "I had been told by this good friend his story of this crazy ex-girlfriend who always liked to play-act things, 'Okay lets go into that bar and you pretend you don't know me and you try to pick me up,' and they were like living together."
• ""She can either really learn to play the flute or she can play-act learning to play the flute.""