play dead
v. phr.— «Still more fiendish is the strategy of “playing dead,” again supposedly being employed by the Conservatives. According to a series of pundits, Conservative leader Michael Howard has avoided saying directly in recent days that his party can defeat Blair’s Labour Party, the current clear favourites. By creating an atmosphere in which a Labour landslide is presumed, the theory goes, many Labour supporters will stay at home or lodge a protest vote against Blair, perhaps allowing the Conservatives to sneak a narrow win, the infamous “back door victory.”» —“British elections a treat for political linguists” by Peter Walker in London, England Sify (India) Apr. 28, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Is there such a thing as a “neutral” accent, and if so what does it sound like? And that quirk in the way southern Californians talk about freeways. They’ll say things like take the 405 and get on the 8. Why the definite article...
Floordrobe is the new word for an old habit: piling your clothes on the floor instead of putting them away. The Oxford English Dictionary recently added an entry for it, defining floordrobe as “an untidy heap of discarded clothing left on the floor...