"play one against another" meaning in English

See play one against another in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-play one against another.ogg [Australia] Forms: plays one against another [present, singular, third-person], playing one against another [participle, present], played one against another [participle, past], played one against another [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} play one against another (third-person singular simple present plays one against another, present participle playing one against another, simple past and past participle played one against another)
  1. (idiomatic) To manipulate two persons into competing against one another in a way that benefits the person carrying out the manipulation. Tags: idiomatic Translations (manipulate two persons into competing against one another): 挑撥離間 /挑拨离间 (tiǎobōlíjiàn) (Chinese Mandarin), saada juonittelemaan toisiaan vastaan (Finnish)

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "plays one against another",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "playing one against another",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played one against another",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played one against another",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "play one against another (third-person singular simple present plays one against another, present participle playing one against another, simple past and past participle played one against another)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Mandarin translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              154,
              183
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1989 December 10, Glenda Edwards, “They Can't Keep Me Away From My Stink”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 22, page 5:",
          "text": "You would expect that we would stick together more, but no way Pete! They lie and snitch on each other and so the system has even more control over us by playing us against each other.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To manipulate two persons into competing against one another in a way that benefits the person carrying out the manipulation."
      ],
      "id": "en-play_one_against_another-en-verb-uRhk6Xxz",
      "links": [
        [
          "manipulate",
          "manipulate"
        ],
        [
          "competing",
          "compete"
        ],
        [
          "benefit",
          "benefit"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To manipulate two persons into competing against one another in a way that benefits the person carrying out the manipulation."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "lang_code": "cmn",
          "roman": "tiǎobōlíjiàn",
          "sense": "manipulate two persons into competing against one another",
          "word": "挑撥離間 /挑拨离间"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "lang_code": "fi",
          "sense": "manipulate two persons into competing against one another",
          "word": "saada juonittelemaan toisiaan vastaan"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-play one against another.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/ce/En-au-play_one_against_another.ogg/En-au-play_one_against_another.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/En-au-play_one_against_another.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "play one against another"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "plays one against another",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "playing one against another",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played one against another",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "played one against another",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "play one against another (third-person singular simple present plays one against another, present participle playing one against another, simple past and past participle played one against another)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with Mandarin translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              154,
              183
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1989 December 10, Glenda Edwards, “They Can't Keep Me Away From My Stink”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 22, page 5:",
          "text": "You would expect that we would stick together more, but no way Pete! They lie and snitch on each other and so the system has even more control over us by playing us against each other.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To manipulate two persons into competing against one another in a way that benefits the person carrying out the manipulation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "manipulate",
          "manipulate"
        ],
        [
          "competing",
          "compete"
        ],
        [
          "benefit",
          "benefit"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To manipulate two persons into competing against one another in a way that benefits the person carrying out the manipulation."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-play one against another.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/ce/En-au-play_one_against_another.ogg/En-au-play_one_against_another.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/En-au-play_one_against_another.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "lang_code": "cmn",
      "roman": "tiǎobōlíjiàn",
      "sense": "manipulate two persons into competing against one another",
      "word": "挑撥離間 /挑拨离间"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "manipulate two persons into competing against one another",
      "word": "saada juonittelemaan toisiaan vastaan"
    }
  ],
  "word": "play one against another"
}

Download raw JSONL data for play one against another meaning in English (2.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (d6fca27 and 65e1673). 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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