A short riddle bringing sceptical reaction (2,2)
I believe the answer is:
as if
'sceptical reaction' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.
'a short riddle' is the wordplay.
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'riddle' becomes 'sift' (riddle can mean to sieve or sift).
'sift' with its last letter removed is 'sif'.
'a'+'sif'='AS-IF'
'bringing' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for as if that I've seen before include "a voice of doubt" , "Or though" , "highly unlikely" , "I very much doubt it!" , "Seemingly" .)