as if
- 1In a way that suggests something; used to introduce a description of how someone or something seems or behaves.
He stared at the screen as if he had seen a ghost.
The kitchen looked as if a storm had passed through it.
Similarlike
Note
Old English already joined the two words as swā ġif, and German als ob is built the same way. What follows can be a full clause or a bare fragment (jumped as if stung). For an imagined picture the verb is often were (as if it were yesterday); for a likely one, an ordinary tense follows (it looks as if it's going to rain).
- 2Used on its own as a reply to show that the speaker thinks something is highly unlikely.
"The airline says your bags will arrive tomorrow." "As if."
Sure, the landlord is going to fix the heat before winter. As if!
Note
Two words make a whole reply, often after the speaker echoes the suggestion in disbelief: Me, take up yoga? As if! The retort is older than it sounds. In Frank Norris's The Pit (1903), Laura answers her aunt with "Oh, as if!", nearly a century before Cher shouts it in Amy Heckerling's Clueless (1995).
- 3Used before a clause to say that the speaker thinks something is very unlikely, or insists that they would never do it.
She thinks I'd read her diary. As if I would stoop that low!
As if the boss is going to give us Friday off!
Note
Here the main clause has dropped away, and the comparison stands alone as a scornful exclamation at the head of the sentence. With would it rejects an accusation (As if I would inform on you!); with an ordinary tense it dismisses something as unlikely. Trim the clause as well and what remains is the one-word retort.
- 4Used to say what a gesture or action imitates, when someone deliberately acts something out.
During charades, Mia swayed from side to side as if she were steering a ship.
The comedian clutched his chest as if he were having a heart attack, then winked at the crowd.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English as ȝif, alls iff ("as if"), from Old English *ealswā ġif, attested only as swā ġif ("as if"); it is equivalent to as + if. Compare Dutch alsof, Low German as of and German als ob, all meaning "as if".