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Playing   /plˈeɪɪŋ/   Listen
verb
Play  v. t.  
1.
To put in action or motion; as, to play cannon upon a fortification; to play a trump. "First Peace and Silence all disputes control, Then Order plays the soul."
2.
To perform music upon; as, to play the flute or the organ.
3.
To perform, as a piece of music, on an instrument; as, to play a waltz on the violin.
4.
To bring into sportive or wanton action; to exhibit in action; to execute; as, to play tricks. "Nature here Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will Her virgin fancies."
5.
To act or perform (a play); to represent in music action; as, to play a comedy; also, to act in the character of; to represent by acting; to simulate; to behave like; as, to play King Lear; to play the woman. "Thou canst play the rational if thou wilt."
6.
To engage in, or go together with, as a contest for amusement or for a wager or prize; as, to play a game at baseball.
7.
To keep in play, as a hooked fish, in order to land it.
To play hob, to play the part of a mischievous spirit; to work mischief.
To play off, to display; to show; to put in exercise; as, to play off tricks.
To play one's cards, to manage one's means or opportunities; to contrive.
Played out, tired out; exhausted; at the end of one's resources. (Colloq.)


Play  v. i.  (past & past part. played; pres. part. playing)  
1.
To engage in sport or lively recreation; to exercise for the sake of amusement; to frolic; to spot. "As Cannace was playing in her walk." "The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, Had he thy reason, would he skip and play!" "And some, the darlings of their Lord, Play smiling with the flame and sword."
2.
To act with levity or thoughtlessness; to trifle; to be careless. ""Nay," quod this monk, "I have no lust to pleye."" "Men are apt to play with their healths."
3.
To contend, or take part, in a game; as, to play ball; hence, to gamble; as, he played for heavy stakes.
4.
To perform on an instrument of music; as, to play on a flute. "One that... can play well on an instrument." "Play, my friend, and charm the charmer."
5.
To act; to behave; to practice deception. "His mother played false with a smith."
6.
To move in any manner; especially, to move regularly with alternate or reciprocating motion; to operate; to act; as, the fountain plays. "The heart beats, the blood circulates, the lungs play."
7.
To move gayly; to wanton; to disport. "Even as the waving sedges play with wind." "The setting sun Plays on their shining arms and burnished helmets." "All fame is foreign but of true desert, Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart."
8.
To act on the stage; to personate a character. "A lord will hear your play to-night." "Courts are theaters where some men play."
To play into a person's hands, to act, or to manage matters, to his advantage or benefit.
To play off, to affect; to feign; to practice artifice.
To play upon.
(a)
To make sport of; to deceive. "Art thou alive? Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight."
(b)
To use in a droll manner; to give a droll expression or application to; as, to play upon words.


Playing  v.  A. & vb. n. of Play.
Playing cards. See under Card.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Playing" Quotes from Famous Books



... done this we neither of us know the rules, so to speak, of the game that the other is playing, and cannot, therefore, play together; but the convention being once known and assented to, it does not matter whether we raise the idea of a stone by the word "lapis," or by "lithos," "pietra," "pierre," "stein," "stane" or "stone"; we may choose what symbols written or spoken we choose, ...
— Essays on Life, Art and Science • Samuel Butler
... in line presenting their arms and the officers, drums, and colors saluting. After this the procession will begin, the troops marching by platoons in inverted order and with arms reversed to the place of interment, the drums muffled and the music playing ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 1 (of 3) of Volume 10. • James D. Richardson
... photographed, and to some extent plodded over a mountainous, heavily glaciated land lying in an area of the entire acreage of Kent, Sussex, Hants, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall, one gets a fair idea of what "Griff" and Co. were playing at. ...
— South with Scott • Edward R. G. R. Evans
... contrived to be alone, for the sake of saying my prayers [6]—and they were many—especially the Rosary, to which my mother had a great devotion, and had made us also in this like herself. I used to delight exceedingly, when playing with other children, in the building of monasteries, as if we were nuns; and I think I wished to be a nun, though not so much as I did to be a martyr ...
— The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus • Teresa of Avila
... stranger hadn't been humorous. Any of his fellow townsmen would have made the same remark. In fact, I had the good fortune a few weeks afterward to see several hundred wild geese playing and feeding on Jack Miner's farm—within a hundred feet of his door-step, ...
— Child and Country - A Book of the Younger Generation • Will Levington Comfort


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