装糊涂

裝糊塗
zhuāng hútu
phrase #34,965

Meanings

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

Examples

HSK 5
Miànduì lǎobǎn de wèntí, tā zhǐnéng zhuāng hútu.
Faced with the boss's question, all he could do was play dumb.
HSK 6
Bié zhuāng hútu, nǐ míngmíng zhīdào wǒ zài shuō shénme.
Don't play dumb. You know perfectly well what I'm talking about.

Tips

usage
装糊涂 literally means '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