Word Meanings - PLAY - Book Publishers vocabulary database

quick motion, and probably to OS. plegan to promise, pledge, D. plegen to care for, attend to, be wont, G. pflegen; of unknown 1. To engage in sport or lively recreation; to exercise for the sake of amusement; to frolic; to spot. As Cannace was

Additional info about word: PLAY

quick motion, and probably to OS. plegan to promise, pledge, D. plegen to care for, attend to, be wont, G. pflegen; of unknown 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. Chaucer. The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, Had he thy reason, would he skip and play! Pope. And some, the darlings of their Lord, Play smiling with the flame and sword. Keble. 2. To act with levity or thoughtlessness; to trifle; to be careless. "Nay," quod this monk, "I have no lust to pleye." Chaucer. Men are apt to play with their healths. Sir W. Temple. 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. Ezek. xxxiii. 32. Play, my friend, and charm the charmer. Granville. 5. To act; to behave; to practice deception. His mother played false with a smith. Shak. 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. Cheyne. 7. To move gayly; to wanton; to disport. Even as the waving sedges play with wind. Shak. The setting sun Plays on their shining arms and burnished helmets. Addison. All fame is foreign but of true desert, Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart. Pope. 8. To act on the stage; to personate a character. A lord will hear your play to-night. Shak. Courts are theaters where some men play. Donne. 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. To make sport of; to deceive. Art thou alive Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight. Shak. To use in a droll manner; to give a droll expression or application to; as, to play upon words.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of PLAY)

• Dally
• Trifle
• play
• wanton
• sport
• fondle
• delay
• procrastinate
• dawdle
• Frisk
• Sport
• leap
• jump
• dance
• Frolic
• Play
• game
• festivity
• entertainment
• gambol
• gayety
• lark
• spree
• merrymaking
• prank
• Gambol Frolic
• frisk
• caper
• Game
• recreation
• pastime
• amusement
• frolic
• diversion

Possible antonyms: (opposite words of PLAY)

• Tire
• weary
• droop
• flog

Related words: (words related to PLAY)

• DANCER
  One who dances or who practices dancing. The merry dancers, beams of the northern lights when they rise and fall alternately without any considerable change of length. See Aurora borealis, under Aurora.
• GAYETY
  1. The state of being gay; merriment; mirth; acts or entertainments prompted by, or inspiring, merry delight; -- used often in the plural; as, the gayeties of the season. 2. Finery; show; as, the gayety of dress. Syn. -- Liveliness; mirth;
• WANTON
  wanting , hence expressing negation + towen, p. p., AS. togen, p. p. of teón to draw, to educate, bring up; hence, 1. Untrained; undisciplined; unrestrained; hence, loose; free; luxuriant; roving; sportive. "In woods and wanton wilderness."
• DROOPER
  One who, or that which, droops.
• TRIFLE
  trifle, probably the same word as F. truffe truffle, the word being 1. A thing of very little value or importance; a paltry, or trivial, affair. With such poor trifles playing. Drayton. Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmation strong
• DALLY
  trifle, talk nonsense, OSw. tule a droll or funny man; or AS. dol 1. To waste time in effeminate or voluptuous pleasures, or in idleness; to fool away time; to delay unnecessarily; to tarry; to trifle. We have trifled too long already;
• FROLICKY
  Frolicsome. Richardson.
• PASTIME
  That which amuses, and serves to make time pass agreeably; sport; amusement; diversion.
• DROOPINGLY
  In a drooping manner.
• WANTONNESS
  The quality or state of being wanton; negligence of restraint; sportiveness; recklessness; lasciviousness. Gower. The tumults threatened to abuse all acts of grace, and turn them into wantonness. Eikon Basilike. Young gentlemen would be as sad as
• SPORTLESS
  Without sport or mirth; joyless.
• SPORTING
  Of pertaining to, or engaging in, sport or sporrts; exhibiting the character or conduct of one who, or that which, sports. Sporting book, a book containing a record of bets, gambling operations, and the like. C. Kingsley. -- Sporting house, a house
• MERRYMAKING
  Making or producing mirth; convivial; jolly.
• SPORTIVE
  Tending to, engaged in, or provocate of, sport; gay; froliscome; playful; merry. Is it I That drive thee from the sportive court Shak. -- Sport"ive*ly, adv. -- Sport"ive*ness, n.
• FRISKER
  One who frisks; one who leaps of dances in gayety; a wanton; an inconstant or unsettled person. Camden.
• RECREATION
  The act of recreating, or the state of being recreated; refreshment of the strength and spirits after toil; amusement; diversion; sport; pastime.
• SPORTAL
  Of or pertaining to sports; used in sports. "Sportal arms." Dryden.
• DANCERESS
  A female dancer. Wyclif.
• PROCRASTINATE
  To put off till to-morrow, or from day to day; to defer; to postpone; to delay; as, to procrastinate repentance. Dr. H. More. Hopeless and helpless Ægeon wend, But to procrastinate his lifeless end. Shak. Syn. -- To postpone; adjourn; defer; delay;
• TRIFLER
  One who trifles. Waterland.
• ASCENDANCY; ASCENDANCE
  See ASCENDENCY
• DISPORT
  Play; sport; pastime; diversion; playfulness. Milton.
• COUNTRY-DANCE
  See MACUALAY
• AIDANCE
  Aid. Aidance 'gainst the enemy. Shak.
• MISTRANSPORT
  To carry away or mislead wrongfully, as by passion. Bp. Hall.
• TENDANCE
  1. The act of attending or waiting; attendance. Spenser. The breath Of her sweet tendance hovering over him. Tennyson. 2. Persons in attendance; attendants. Shak.
• TRANSPORTING
  That transports; fig., ravishing. Your transporting chords ring out. Keble.
• UNWEARY
  To cause to cease being weary; to refresh. Dryden.
• TRANSPORTAL
  Transportation; the act of removing from one locality to another. "The transportal of seeds in the wool or fur of quadrupeds." Darwin.
• TRANSPORTABILITY
  The quality or state of being transportable.
• YIELDANCE
  1. The act of producing; yield; as, the yieldance of the earth. Bp. Hall. 2. The act of yielding; concession. South.
• ABUNDANCE
  An overflowing fullness; ample sufficiency; great plenty; profusion; copious supply; superfluity; wealth: -- strictly applicable to quantity only, but sometimes used of number. It is lamentable to remember what abundance of noble blood hath been