make as if

1. 1.

   begin or appear to begin an action

   “He made as if to shake my hand”

   Broaderact

Questions about make as if

What does make as if mean?

make as if means "begin or appear to begin an action".

Is make as if a common word?

make as if is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.