See play at in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
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{
"form": "plays at",
"tags": [
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},
{
"form": "playing at",
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"participle",
"present"
]
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{
"form": "played at",
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"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"
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"text": "So we played at being pirates for a while.",
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}
],
"glosses": [
"To pretend to be a different person while playing a game."
],
"id": "en-play_at-en-verb-JLmIDfyf",
"links": [
[
"pretend",
"pretend"
]
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "1 94 0 1 3",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"lang_code": "es",
"sense": "to pretend to be a different person while playing a game",
"word": "jugar a"
}
]
},
{
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{
"_dis": "4 7 70 16 3",
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{
"_dis": "7 9 60 18 7",
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"text": "In my opinion, John only plays at being an author. He hasn't sold more than two magazine articles in as many months.",
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"ref": "2015, Andrew O'Hagan, The Illuminations, →ISBN, page 94:",
"text": "'You don't like him, Captain, do you?' 'No, I don't. He plays at being loyal.'",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To do something in a manner that lacks seriousness, commitment, or professionalism."
],
"id": "en-play_at-en-verb-WnfvtfKM",
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"serious",
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],
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"text": "Hey! Stop throwing stones at the swans! What on earth do you think you're playing at?",
"type": "example"
}
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"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"
]
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"raw_glosses": [
"(archaic) To play (a game)."
],
"tags": [
"archaic"
]
}
],
"word": "play at"
}
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"English phrasal verbs formed with \"at\"",
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},
{
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{
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],
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"To pretend to be a different person while playing a game."
],
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]
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"categories": [
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56,
64
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"ref": "2015, Andrew O'Hagan, The Illuminations, →ISBN, page 94:",
"text": "'You don't like him, Captain, do you?' 'No, I don't. He plays at being loyal.'",
"type": "quotation"
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],
"glosses": [
"To do something in a manner that lacks seriousness, commitment, or professionalism."
],
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[
"serious",
"serious"
],
[
"commitment",
"commitment"
],
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84
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"text": "Hey! Stop throwing stones at the swans! What on earth do you think you're playing at?",
"type": "example"
}
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"Used to suggest that someone is doing something very wrong, or incorrectly, usually with the possibility of causing damage or harm."
],
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"(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 terms with archaic senses"
],
"glosses": [
"To play (a game)."
],
"links": [
[
"play",
"play"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(archaic) To play (a game)."
],
"tags": [
"archaic"
]
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"lang_code": "es",
"sense": "to pretend to be a different person while playing a game",
"word": "jugar a"
}
],
"word": "play at"
}
Download raw JSONL data for play at meaning in English (3.0kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). 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.