"play at" meaning in All languages combined

See play at on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Forms: plays at [present, singular, third-person], playing at [participle, present], played at [participle, past], played at [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} play at (third-person singular simple present plays at, present participle playing at, simple past and past participle played at)
  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see play, at.
    Sense id: en-play_at-en-verb-orTZ2Nyc
  2. To pretend to be a different person while playing a game.
    Sense id: en-play_at-en-verb-JLmIDfyf
  3. To do something in a manner that lacks seriousness, commitment, or professionalism.
    Sense id: en-play_at-en-verb-WnfvtfKM Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "at", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 3 7 73 15 2 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "at": 5 8 65 17 5 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 4 6 72 15 4 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 3 4 75 15 3
  4. (especially in rhetorical questions) Used to suggest that someone is doing something very wrong, or incorrectly, usually with the possibility of causing damage or harm. Tags: especially
    Sense id: en-play_at-en-verb-ItFuW5Cs
  5. (archaic) To play (a game). Tags: archaic
    Sense id: en-play_at-en-verb-nXTPq5ji

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "plays at",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "playing at",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played at",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played at",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "play at (third-person singular simple present plays at, present participle playing at, simple past and past participle played at)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The band are playing at the Odeon tonight.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see play, at."
      ],
      "id": "en-play_at-en-verb-orTZ2Nyc",
      "links": [
        [
          "play",
          "play#English"
        ],
        [
          "at",
          "at#English"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "So we played at being pirates for a while.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To pretend to be a different person while playing a game."
      ],
      "id": "en-play_at-en-verb-JLmIDfyf",
      "links": [
        [
          "pretend",
          "pretend"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "3 7 73 15 2",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "5 8 65 17 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"at\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "4 6 72 15 4",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "3 4 75 15 3",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "In my opinion, John only plays at being an author. He hasn't sold more than two magazine articles in as many months.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Andrew O'Hagan, The Illuminations, →ISBN, page 94:",
          "text": "'You don't like him, Capatin, do you?' 'No, I don't. He plays at being loyal'",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To do something in a manner that lacks seriousness, commitment, or professionalism."
      ],
      "id": "en-play_at-en-verb-WnfvtfKM",
      "links": [
        [
          "serious",
          "serious"
        ],
        [
          "commitment",
          "commitment"
        ],
        [
          "professionalism",
          "professionalism"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Hey! Stop throwing stones at the swans! What on earth do you think you're playing at?",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to suggest that someone is doing something very wrong, or incorrectly, usually with the possibility of causing damage or harm."
      ],
      "id": "en-play_at-en-verb-ItFuW5Cs",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(especially in rhetorical questions) Used to suggest that someone is doing something very wrong, or incorrectly, usually with the possibility of causing damage or harm."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "in rhetorical questions"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "especially"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "To play (a game)."
      ],
      "id": "en-play_at-en-verb-nXTPq5ji",
      "links": [
        [
          "play",
          "play"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic) To play (a game)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "play at"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrasal verbs",
    "English phrasal verbs formed with \"at\"",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "plays at",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "playing at",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played at",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played at",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "play at (third-person singular simple present plays at, present participle playing at, simple past and past participle played at)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The band are playing at the Odeon tonight.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see play, at."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "play",
          "play#English"
        ],
        [
          "at",
          "at#English"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "So we played at being pirates for a while.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To pretend to be a different person while playing a game."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pretend",
          "pretend"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "In my opinion, John only plays at being an author. He hasn't sold more than two magazine articles in as many months.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2015, Andrew O'Hagan, The Illuminations, →ISBN, page 94:",
          "text": "'You don't like him, Capatin, do you?' 'No, I don't. He plays at being loyal'",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To do something in a manner that lacks seriousness, commitment, or professionalism."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "serious",
          "serious"
        ],
        [
          "commitment",
          "commitment"
        ],
        [
          "professionalism",
          "professionalism"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Hey! Stop throwing stones at the swans! What on earth do you think you're playing at?",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to suggest that someone is doing something very wrong, or incorrectly, usually with the possibility of causing damage or harm."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(especially in rhetorical questions) Used to suggest that someone is doing something very wrong, or incorrectly, usually with the possibility of causing damage or harm."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "in rhetorical questions"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "especially"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English archaic terms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To play (a game)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "play",
          "play"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(archaic) To play (a game)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "play at"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.