make as if to do something

Từ điển tiếng Anh - Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary

make as if to do sth idiom
If you make as if to do something, you seem as if that is what you are going to do
• He made as if to speak.
Thesaurus⁺: ↑Seeming and purporting to be ↑Faking and pretending
Main entry: make_idiom