"play by the rules" meaning in English

See play by the rules in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: plays by the rules [present, singular, third-person], playing by the rules [participle, present], played by the rules [participle, past], played by the rules [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} play by the rules (third-person singular simple present plays by the rules, present participle playing by the rules, simple past and past participle played by the rules)
  1. to do what is expected. Synonyms: play the game
    Sense id: en-play_by_the_rules-en-verb-2oL55EYh Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "plays by the rules",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "playing by the rules",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played by the rules",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played by the rules",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "play by the rules (third-person singular simple present plays by the rules, present participle playing by the rules, simple past and past participle played by the rules)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              19,
              38
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2025 June 20, Nick Levine, “'In every theatre, people would leave': How 'gay cowboy movie' Brokeback Mountain challenged Hollywood – and the US”, in BBC:",
          "text": "Perhaps because it played by the rules while challenging them at the same time, Brokeback Mountain's place in film history is assured.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to do what is expected."
      ],
      "id": "en-play_by_the_rules-en-verb-2oL55EYh",
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "play the game"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "play by the rules"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "plays by the rules",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "playing by the rules",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played by the rules",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played by the rules",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "play by the rules (third-person singular simple present plays by the rules, present participle playing by the rules, simple past and past participle played by the rules)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              19,
              38
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2025 June 20, Nick Levine, “'In every theatre, people would leave': How 'gay cowboy movie' Brokeback Mountain challenged Hollywood – and the US”, in BBC:",
          "text": "Perhaps because it played by the rules while challenging them at the same time, Brokeback Mountain's place in film history is assured.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to do what is expected."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "play the game"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "play by the rules"
}

Download raw JSONL data for play by the rules meaning in English (1.3kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). 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.

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