play off
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.44 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To portray (something) (as unimportant); to dismiss or make light of (a factor in a situation, or one's embarrassment about it); to pretend not to be embarrassed, upset, impressed, or otherwise affected by (it).
Transitive verb
verb
To set (other people) against one another: to induce competition between them, especially in a covert way so that they do not realize the degree to which they have been played (manipulated).
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "After tripping, Sara tried to play her embarrassment off by laughing with everyone else."
- "Although he's obviously hungover, he's trying to play it off as food poisoning."
- "Stalin's propensity to play off his subordinates against one another is a well-studied theme."
- "to play off tricks"
- "“[A]n’ whin the anlooky brat had thim all in this way whirligiggin’ about the flure, he’d grin an’ he’d chuckle an’ he'd chather, jist fur all the world like Jocko, the monkey, whin he’s played off sum uv his roguery.”"