With 'play'

Question 1

play around

Answer 1

Behave in a silly way

“Stop playing around and eat your dinner!”

Question 2

play sth back

Answer 2

Listen or watch sth recorded

“After the recording session, Lily played back the first few songs and listened carefully.”

Question 3

play along

Answer 3

Act in a certain way to keep sb happy

“She claims she was fired because she refused to play along with the coverup.”

Question 4

play up

Answer 4

Make sth seem more important

“The report plays up the benefits of the plan, but doesn’t say much about the costs.”

Question 5

play with

Answer 5

Move or touch sth for fun

“Tom always plays with his hair when he’s bored.”

Question 6

play off

Answer 6

To play a game, in a team sport, to decide which side will win
“United and Rangers are playing off for the championship.”

Question 7

play on/upon sth

Answer 7

Encourage and make unfair use of sb’s feelings in order to give yourself an advantage

“I hate marketing strategies that play on people’s fears and prejudices.”

Question 8

play at sth

Answer 8

To pretend to be a particular person or to do a particular thing, usually as a game

“She’s only playing at being an actress - she’s going off to law school next year.”

Question 9

play sth down

Answer 9

To make something seem less important or less bad than it really is

“A Pentagon spokesman was trying to play down the significance of the incident.”

Question 10

play sb/sth off against sb/sth

Answer 10

To encourage one person or group to compete or argue with another, hoping to gain some advantage from this situation

“Management policy seemed to be to play one department off against another.”

Question 11

play sth out

Answer 11

To pretend that an imaginary situation or event is really happening

“In the psychotherapy group, patients were free to play out their fantasies.”