Wednesday 30 March 2016

Is there an idiom or set phrase for "pretending not to understand an innuendo"?

She was just being coy about her love life, deciding to play dumb and beat around the bush until you changed the subject. Your response could have been 'don't be coy; answer the question'.



coy (koi) adjective




TFD: 2. Unwilling to make a commitment or divulge information:
"As a child, when I asked my mother her age she was coy and evasive" (Lynne Sharon Schwartz).



Google: reluctant to give details, especially about something regarded as sensitive.




“Pretending not to understand an innuendo” could be rewritten as: unwilling to divulge information of a sensitive nature.



beat around the bush –etymology, SE




to avoid answering a question; to stall; to waste time. -TFD






Bending the ear of a third party, you could snarkily say, "I think she's ignoring me." In your sentence, "She just ignored it."

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