Play | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Plāy, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. [imp. & p. p. PLAYED; p. pr. & vb. n. PLAYING.] [O. Eng. pleyer, pley, A-S. plegian, pleggian, pleogian, to play; plega, play; Dan. lege, Sw. & Prov. Eng. leku.] 1. To engage in sport or lively recreation; to frolic; to engage in some exercise for the sake of amusement. The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, Had he thy reason, would he skip and play? Pope. 2. To act with levity or thoughtlessness; to trifle. Men are apt to play with their healths and their lives as they do with their clothes. Sir W. Temple.

To contend in a game; hence, sometimes, to gamble.
To practice a trick or deception.

His mother played false with a smith. Shak. 5. To perform on an instrument of music; as, to play on a flute, a violin, or a harpsichord. Play, my friend, and charm the charmer. Granville. 6. To move in any manner; especially, to move with alternate or reciprocating motion; to operate; to act; as, the engines play against a fire. The heart beats, the blood circulates, the lungs play. Cheyne. 7. To move irregularly; to wanton. Even as the waving sedges play with wind. Shak. The setting sun Plays on their shining arms and burnished helmets. Addison. All fame is foreign but of true desert, Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart. Pope. 8. To act a part upon the stage; to personate a character. A lord will hear you play to-night. Shak. Courts are theaters where some men play. Donne. To play upon. (a.) To make sport of; to deceive. Art thou alive, Or is it fancy plays upon our eyesight? Shak. (b.) To use in a droll manner; to give a droll expression or application to.

Plāy, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. 1. To put in action or motion; as, to play cannon or a fire-engine.

First Peace and Silence all disputes control, Then Order plays the soul. Herbert.

Sense 2. To perform music upon; as, to play the flute or the organ.

Sense 3. To bring into sportive or wanton action.

Nature here Wantoned, as in her prime, and played at will Her virgin fancies. Milton.

Sense 4. To act or perform by representing a character; as, to play a comedy; to play the part of King Lear; also, to act in or like, as a character of some general sort; as, to play the fool; to play the man; to play the woman.

Thou canst play the rational if thou wilt. W. Scott.

Sense 5. To perform in contest for amusement or for a prize; as, to play a game at whist.

To play off, to display; to show; to put in exercise; as, to play off tricks.

Plāy, n.

noun

n. 1. Any exercise or series of actions intended for pleasure, amusement, or diversion, as at cricket or quoit, or at blind-man’s-buff; a game. “John naturally loved rough play.” Arbuthnot.

Sense 2. Amusement; sport; frolic; gambols. “Two gentle fawns at play.” Milton.

Sense 3. The act or practice of contending for victory, for amusement, or for a prize, as at dice, cards, or billiards, or other games; gaming.

Sense 4. Practice in any contest; as, sword-play.

He was resolved not to speak distinctly, knowing his best play to be in the dark. Tillotson.

Sense 5. Action; use; employment; manner of dealing; as, fair play; foul play. “But justifies the next who comes in play.” Dryden.

Sense 6. A dramatic composition; a comedy or tragedy; a composition in which characters are represented by dialogue and action.

A play ought to be a just image of human nature. Dryden.

Sense 7. The representation or exhibition of a comedy or tragedy; as, to be at the play; he attends every play.

Sense 8. Performance on an instrument of music.

Sense 9. Motion; movement, regular or irregular; as, the play of a wheel or piston; hence, also, room for motion; free and easy action.

Yet to give them play, front and rear, it shall be my task to prove that episcopacy . . . is not only agreeable, but tending to the destruction of monarchy. Milton.

The joints are let exactly into one another, that they have no play between them. Moxon.

Sense 10. Hence, liberty of acting; room for enlargement or display; scope; as, to give full play to mirth.

Play of colors, an appearance of several prismatic colors in rapid succession on turning an object, as a diamond. Dana. — To hold in play, to keep occupied.

I, with two more to help me, Will hold the foe in play. Macaulay.