The phrase "as if to join" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe an action or behavior that suggests an intention to become part of a group or activity.
Example: "She reached out her hand, as if to join the conversation happening around her."
Alternatives: "as though to participate" or "as if to become involved".
In La Plaza Cultural garden in the East Village, a weeping willow, like some shambling teenager, hunches toward a clutch of young people as if trying to join their conversation.
And New Yorkers had already been entertained by Marvin Traub's extravagant productions at Bloomingdale's, by the brilliant windows of Robert Currie at Bendel's and Lynn Hershman at Bonwit Teller (where famously a mannequin was posed with her hand crashing through the glass, as if wanting to join the action outside).
The most tantalizing of the urban dramas was window No. 11, in which a mannequin named Bonnie (whom Hershman Leeson named after Bonwit) was posed with her hand crashing through the glass, as if wanting to join the action on the sidewalk.
He preferred life as a playboy and some years later, as the annual carnival parade passed through the main square near the palace, I watched him ride one of his powerful motorbikes round and round behind the railings as if impatient to join in, or at least get out.
All signs point to her wanting to become something that isn't nourished through violence towards other living beings; sitting by the fountain soaking in the sun, shedding her clothing and walking around naked as often as she can, her glee and arousal when her body is painted with flowers, and her escape from the psychiatric hospital, only to stand still among the trees as if trying to join them.
I looked at Ollie and he winked at me as if to say: "Join the club".
Wearing a genial expression that suggests that he had been waiting for a visitor to drop by, Stalin holds out his hand, as if to say, "Join me in my great adventure".
Once, at a Holi party, a large, dark-skinned woman from Hyderabad had begun praising Nirmala in front of Gautama, as if inviting him to join in.
For a while, the Rangers' Colby Lewis looked as if he wanted to join Beckett in the hot mess bucket, giving up five homers to the Orioles, including to the first three batters, before striking out 12 and giving up no other hits besides the five homers.
