See play the field in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for play the field meaning in English (4.3kB)
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "plays the field",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "playing the field",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "played the field",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "played the field",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "play the field (third-person singular simple present plays the field, present participle playing the field, simple past and past participle played the field)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "British English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"_dis": "79 21",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "87 13",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
"parents": [
"Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "87 13",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English predicates",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "80 20",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"parents": [
"Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To cut one's losses by betting on every racehorse other than the crowd favorite."
],
"id": "en-play_the_field-en-verb-~fO2dhgH",
"links": [
[
"cut one's losses",
"cut one's losses"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(UK, horseracing) To cut one's losses by betting on every racehorse other than the crowd favorite."
],
"tags": [
"UK"
],
"topics": [
"hobbies",
"horseracing",
"horses",
"lifestyle",
"pets",
"racing",
"sports"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "77 23",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to date more than one person",
"word": "pyörittää useampaa naista kerralla"
},
{
"_dis1": "77 23",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to date more than one person",
"word": "nichts anbrennen lassen"
},
{
"_dis1": "77 23",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"raw_tags": [
"of exactly two partners"
],
"sense": "to date more than one person",
"tags": [
"uncommon"
],
"word": "zweigleisig fahren"
},
{
"_dis1": "77 23",
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to date more than one person",
"word": "tenere il piede in due scarpe"
},
{
"_dis1": "77 23",
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "to date more than one person",
"word": "köra två spår, köra dubbelspårigt"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"text": "He says I'm the only one, but my friends say he's playing the field.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1980, Bernard Edwards, Nile Rodgers (lyrics and music), “Upside Down”, in Diana, performed by Diana Ross",
"text": "I know you got charm and appeal / You always play the field / I'm crazy to think you're all mine",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2020 January 28, Lizzie Cernik, “The power of celibacy: ‘Giving up sex was a massive relief’”, in The Guardian",
"text": "In a world where you can get a sexual partner faster than a pizza delivery, it has never been easier to play the field.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2020 August 4, Richard Conniff, “They may look goofy, but ostriches are nobody’s fool”, in National Geographic Magazine",
"text": "But ostriches in breeding season are relentlessly promiscuous, with both males and females seeking liaisons with multiple partners. No doubt they have their reasons. But from an evolutionary perspective, playing the field is a way to get diverse DNA into as many nests as possible and compensate for the fact that most nests fail.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To have numerous romantic partners, without or before committing exclusively to one."
],
"id": "en-play_the_field-en-verb-n7ghjlax",
"links": [
[
"romantic",
"romantic"
],
[
"partner",
"partner"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To have numerous romantic partners, without or before committing exclusively to one."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-play the field.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b5/En-au-play_the_field.ogg/En-au-play_the_field.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/En-au-play_the_field.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "play the field"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English predicates",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"English verbs"
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "plays the field",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "playing the field",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "played the field",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "played the field",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "play the field (third-person singular simple present plays the field, present participle playing the field, simple past and past participle played the field)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"British English"
],
"glosses": [
"To cut one's losses by betting on every racehorse other than the crowd favorite."
],
"links": [
[
"cut one's losses",
"cut one's losses"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(UK, horseracing) To cut one's losses by betting on every racehorse other than the crowd favorite."
],
"tags": [
"UK"
],
"topics": [
"hobbies",
"horseracing",
"horses",
"lifestyle",
"pets",
"racing",
"sports"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations",
"English terms with usage examples"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "He says I'm the only one, but my friends say he's playing the field.",
"type": "example"
},
{
"ref": "1980, Bernard Edwards, Nile Rodgers (lyrics and music), “Upside Down”, in Diana, performed by Diana Ross",
"text": "I know you got charm and appeal / You always play the field / I'm crazy to think you're all mine",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2020 January 28, Lizzie Cernik, “The power of celibacy: ‘Giving up sex was a massive relief’”, in The Guardian",
"text": "In a world where you can get a sexual partner faster than a pizza delivery, it has never been easier to play the field.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2020 August 4, Richard Conniff, “They may look goofy, but ostriches are nobody’s fool”, in National Geographic Magazine",
"text": "But ostriches in breeding season are relentlessly promiscuous, with both males and females seeking liaisons with multiple partners. No doubt they have their reasons. But from an evolutionary perspective, playing the field is a way to get diverse DNA into as many nests as possible and compensate for the fact that most nests fail.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To have numerous romantic partners, without or before committing exclusively to one."
],
"links": [
[
"romantic",
"romantic"
],
[
"partner",
"partner"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To have numerous romantic partners, without or before committing exclusively to one."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-play the field.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b5/En-au-play_the_field.ogg/En-au-play_the_field.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/En-au-play_the_field.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to date more than one person",
"word": "pyörittää useampaa naista kerralla"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "to date more than one person",
"word": "nichts anbrennen lassen"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"raw_tags": [
"of exactly two partners"
],
"sense": "to date more than one person",
"tags": [
"uncommon"
],
"word": "zweigleisig fahren"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to date more than one person",
"word": "tenere il piede in due scarpe"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "to date more than one person",
"word": "köra två spår, köra dubbelspårigt"
}
],
"word": "play the field"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.