装糊涂

裝糊塗

zhuānghútu

phrase #34,965

Meanings

1 to play dumb
2 to pretend not to understand
3 to feign ignorance

Characters

to pretend; to feign

muddled; pasted

smeared (in 糊涂 = confused)

Examples

别装糊涂，你明明知道我在说什么。

Bié zhuānghútu, nǐ míngmíng zhīdào wǒ zài shuō shénme.

Don't play dumb — you know perfectly well what I'm talking about.

面对老板的问题，他只能装糊涂。

Miànduì lǎobǎn de wèntí, tā zhǐ néng zhuānghútu.

Faced with the boss's question, all he could do was play dumb.

Tips

usage

装糊涂 literally 'pretend to be muddled'. It is the standard verb-object phrase for feigning ignorance to avoid responsibility, contrasted with the famous Qing-dynasty phrase 难得糊涂 ('rare to be [genuinely] muddled'), which praises strategic obliviousness as wisdom rather than evasion.

Stroke Order

装 zhuāng

糊 hú

涂 tú