play
Meanings
- To act in a manner such that one has fun; to engage in activities expressly for the purpose of recreation or entertainment.
- To toy or trifle; to act with levity or thoughtlessness; to be careless.
- To perform in (a sport); to participate in (a game).
- Specifying a particular sporting role or position.
- To compete against, in a game.
- To be the opposing score to.
- To contend or fight using weapons, both as practice or in real life-or-death combats; to engage in martial games; to joust; to fence
- To act or behave in a stated way.
- To give a false appearance of being; to pretend to be.
- To act as (the indicated role).
- To portray (a character) in (a film or theatre).
- To produce sound (especially music), moving pictures, or theatrical performance.
- Activity for amusement only, especially among the young.
- Similar activity in young animals, as they explore their environment and learn new skills.
- The conduct, or course, of a game.
- The sphere or circumstance in which a playing implement, such as a ball, is played or available to be played (see also in play, out of play).
- An individual's performance in a sport or game.
- A short sequence of action within a game.
- An action carried out when it is one's turn to play.
- A literary composition, intended to be represented by actors impersonating the characters and speaking the dialogue.
- A theatrical performance featuring actors.
- An attempt to move forward, as in a plan or strategy, for example by a business, investor, or political party.
- A geological formation that contains an accumulation or prospect of hydrocarbons or other resources.
- Movement (of a pattern of light etc.)
- Dave & Buster's.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English pleyen, playen, pleȝen, plæien, also Middle English plaȝen, plawen (compare English plaw), from Old English pleġan, pleoġan, plæġan, and Old English plegian, pleagian, plagian (“to play, exercise, etc.”), from Proto-West Germanic *plehan (“to care about, be concerned with”) and Proto-West Germanic *plegōn (“to engage, move”), of uncertain origin. cognates and related terms Cognate with Scots play (“to act or move briskly, cause to move, stir”), Saterland Frisian pleegje (“to look after, care for, maintain”), West Frisian pleegje, pliigje (“to commit, perform, bedrive”), Middle Dutch pleyen ("to dance, leap for joy, rejoice, be glad"; compare Modern Dutch pleien (“to play a particular children's game”)), Dutch plegen (“to commit, bedrive, practice”), German pflegen (“to care for, be concerned with, attend to, tend”). Related also to Old English plēon (“to risk, endanger”). More at plight, pledge. The noun is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, plega, plæġa (“play, quick motion, movement, exercise; (athletic) sport, game; festivity, drama; battle; gear for games, an implement for a game; clapping with the hands, applause”), deverbative of plegian (“to play”); see above.