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play on
verb
- adverb to continue to play
- Alsoplay upon preposition to exploit or impose upon (the feelings or weakness of another) to one's own advantage
- adverb cricket to hit the ball into one's own wicket
Idioms and Phrases
Also, play upon . Take advantage of or make use of for a desired effect, as in These health care ads are meant to play on our fears . This idiom uses play in the sense of 鈥減erforming on an instrument.鈥 Shakespeare used it in Hamlet (3:2): 鈥淵ou would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops.鈥 [Late 1500s]Example Sentences
Enduring and believable conspiracies are the ones that play on our fears, the stories we tell ourselves, and how far we are willing to go to accept what 鈥渇eels as if鈥 versus what actually 鈥渋s.鈥
Trump has long drawn on this to play on Americans鈥 sense of disempowerment and direct it against the supposedly tyrannical 鈥渄eep state.鈥
"There isn't a surface in my mind that Jack can't play on," former British number one Tim Henman told BBC Sport last month.
"I think he will become more and more difficult to play on clay. He will be a threat. The sky is the limit for him."
St. John Bosco 2, JSerra 0: The Trinity League champions received five scoreless innings from Noah Everly to finish league play on an 11-game winning streak.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from 亚洲网紅露点 Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 漏 Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage庐 Idioms Dictionary copyright 漏 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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