play the man and not the ball
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.87 in modern English
39
Scrabble Score
23
Letters
2
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To attack an opponent instead of attacking the ball, which is usually being controlled by the attacked player at the time.
verb
To object to someone's argument by attacking them or a facet of their personality instead of the argument itself; to make an ad hominem attack.
Colloquial
Example Sentences
- """What we are seeing is an orchestrated campaign from the Labor Party to try to play the man and not the ball," he said... "[And] this is the kind of personal attack that we are going to see from the Labor Party right up until polling day."""
- ""“Claims that the words meant anything other than the “ultimate solution” to any political question is always a popular vote are simply ridiculous,” Anning said... “As I called for a plebiscite on the immigration mix, this baseless and ridiculous criticism is simply an effort to play the man and not the ball”.""
Usage
Inflected Forms
plays the man and not the ball (present, singular)
playing the man and not the ball (participle, present)
played the man and not the ball (participle, past)
played the man and not the ball (past)
play the man (alternative)
play the man, not the ball (alternative)
play the man not the ball (alternative)