| slovo | definícia |
play up
(encz) | play up,zveličovat v: Zdeněk Brož |
play up
(wn) | play up
v 1: move into the foreground to make more visible or prominent;
"The introduction highlighted the speaker's distinguished
career in linguistics" [syn: foreground, highlight,
spotlight, play up] [ant: background, downplay,
play down]
2: ingratiate oneself to; often with insincere behavior; "She is
playing up to the chairman" [syn: cozy up, cotton up,
shine up, play up, sidle up, suck up] |
| | podobné slovo | definícia |
play up to
(encz) | play up to, |
A play upon words
(gcide) | Play \Play\, n.
1. Amusement; sport; frolic; gambols.
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2. Any exercise, or series of actions, intended for amusement
or diversion; a game.
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John naturally loved rough play. --Arbuthnot.
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3. The act or practice of contending for victory, amusement,
or a prize, as at dice, cards, or billiards; gaming; as,
to lose a fortune in play.
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4. Action; use; employment; exercise; practice; as, fair
play; sword play; a play of wit. "The next who comes in
play." --Dryden.
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5. A dramatic composition; a comedy or tragedy; a composition
in which characters are represented by dialogue and
action.
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A play ought to be a just image of human nature.
--Dryden.
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6. The representation or exhibition of a comedy or tragedy;
as, he attends ever play.
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7. Performance on an instrument of music.
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8. Motion; movement, regular or irregular; as, the play of a
wheel or piston; hence, also, room for motion; free and
easy action. "To give them play, front and rear."
--Milton.
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The joints are let exactly into one another, that
they have no play between them. --Moxon.
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9. Hence, liberty of acting; room for enlargement or display;
scope; as, to give full play to mirth.
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Play actor, an actor of dramas. --Prynne.
Play debt, a gambling debt. --Arbuthnot.
Play pleasure, idle amusement. [Obs.] --Bacon.
A play upon words, the use of a word in such a way as to be
capable of double meaning; punning.
Play of colors, prismatic variation of colors.
To bring into play, To come into play, to bring or come
into use or exercise.
To hold in play, to keep occupied or employed.
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I, with two more to help me,
Will hold the foe in play. --Macaulay.
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To play upon
(gcide) | Play \Play\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Played; p. pr. & vb. n.
Playing.] [OE. pleien, AS. plegian, plegan, to play, akin
to plega play, game, quick motion, and probably to OS. plegan
to promise, pledge, D. plegen to care for, attend to, be
wont, G. pflegen; of unknown origin. [root]28. Cf. Plight,
n.]
1. To engage in sport or lively recreation; to exercise for
the sake of amusement; to frolic; to spot.
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As Cannace was playing in her walk. --Chaucer.
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The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play! --Pope.
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And some, the darlings of their Lord,
Play smiling with the flame and sword. --Keble.
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2. To act with levity or thoughtlessness; to trifle; to be
careless.
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"Nay," quod this monk, "I have no lust to pleye."
--Chaucer.
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Men are apt to play with their healths. --Sir W.
Temple.
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3. To contend, or take part, in a game; as, to play ball;
hence, to gamble; as, he played for heavy stakes.
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4. To perform on an instrument of music; as, to play on a
flute.
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One that . . . can play well on an instrument.
--Ezek.
xxxiii. 32.
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Play, my friend, and charm the charmer. --Granville.
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5. To act; to behave; to practice deception.
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His mother played false with a smith. --Shak.
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6. To move in any manner; especially, to move regularly with
alternate or reciprocating motion; to operate; to act; as,
the fountain plays.
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The heart beats, the blood circulates, the lungs
play. --Cheyne.
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7. To move gayly; to wanton; to disport.
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Even as the waving sedges play with wind. --Shak.
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The setting sun
Plays on their shining arms and burnished helmets.
--Addison.
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All fame is foreign but of true desert,
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.
--Pope.
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8. To act on the stage; to personate a character.
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A lord will hear your play to-night. --Shak.
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Courts are theaters where some men play. --Donne.
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To play into a person's hands, to act, or to manage
matters, to his advantage or benefit.
To play off, to affect; to feign; to practice artifice.
To play upon.
(a) To make sport of; to deceive.
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Art thou alive?
Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight.
--Shak.
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(b) To use in a droll manner; to give a droll expression
or application to; as, to play upon words.
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