pass (someone or something) off as

phrase

: to cause people to wrongly believe that someone or something is someone or something else

amateurs passing themselves off as professionals

She passed the poem off as her own.

Examples of pass (someone or something) off as in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And certainly not the performative pugilism that some, including the hyper-online Newsom, pass off as leadership. — Mark Barabak, Mercury News, 3 Oct. 2025

Lastly and most crucially, CliffsNotes don’t generate writing that students can pass off as their own. — Joelle Renstrom august 28, Literary Hub, 28 Aug. 2025

Essentially, anything bigger than a day pack will be hard to pass off as a personal item. — Ryan Krogh, Outside Online, 30 Apr. 2025

Offering little or no value, here’s what AI tried to pass off as such – straight from the horse’s mouth – along with comments from yours truly. — Eli Amdur, Forbes.com, 10 Apr. 2025

Though the real number of people who saw the livestream isn’t known, the scammers were able to fool viewers using AI technology, with a voice convincing enough to pass off as the Tesla CEO’s. — Maria Mocerino, Interesting Engineering, 25 June 2024

In the show, Halina uses coats to trade and pass off as Aryan. — Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 15 June 2024

Across all versions, changelings could easily pass off as their human counterparts — their true likeness only exposed by way of trickery or beatings. — Jessica Wang, EW.com, 7 Sep. 2023