Avoidance Tactics

noun a series of actions or behavior intended to deceive or evade someone

verb to deceive or evade someone by giving them the runaround

• The company's runaround tactics made it difficult to get a straight answer.
• I'm tired of getting the runaround from customer service.
• Stop giving me the runaround and just tell me the truth.
• She felt like she was running in circles, caught in a never-ending runaround.

noun a word that functions as the name of a person, place, thing, or idea

verb a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence

adverb a word that modifies or describes a verb, adjective, or another adverb

preposition a word that shows the relationship between a noun (or pronoun) and other words in a sentence

• He tried to squirm out of taking responsibility for the mistake.
• She always tries to squirm out of doing her chores.
• He's always looking for ways to squirm out of paying his share.
• The politician tried to squirm out of answering the tough questions during the debate.

noun A person who is pretending to be unintelligent or ignorant.

verb An action word that describes the act of pretending to be unintelligent or ignorant.

adjective Describes the behavior of pretending to be unintelligent or ignorant.

• It is unprofessional to act dumb during a job interview.
• Don't act dumb when your teacher asks you a question in class.
• Stop acting dumb, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
• She likes to act dumb to avoid taking responsibility for her actions.