/pos"euhm/ , n.
1. opossum.
2. 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.
3. Australian. any of various phalangers, esp. of the genus Trichosurus.
[ 1605-15, Amer.; short for OPOSSUM ]