a trick; a put-on act; a little drama
Refers to a small, often theatrical deception or performance put on to fool someone, like a staged scene. Often used in the phrase 一芝居打つ (to put on an act).
He put on an act to deceive me.
That fake crying was clearly a put-on.
Standard kanji spelling.
Mixed kana-kanji spelling sometimes seen in informal writing.
Compound of 一 (ひと, 'one') and 芝居 (しばい, 'play, drama'). Literally 'one play', it came to mean a single staged act, often with a connotation of trickery.