play

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Origin: 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. √28. Cf. Plight, noun

1. To engage in sport or lively recreation; to exercise for the sake of amusement; to frolic; to spot.

As Cannace was playing in her walk.— Geoffrey Chaucer

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day, Had he thy reason, would he skip and play!— Alexander Pope

And some, the darlings of their Lord, Play smiling with the flame and sword.— John Keble

2. To act with levity or thoughtlessness; to trifle; to be careless.

“Nay,” quod this monk, “I have no lust to pleye.”— Geoffrey Chaucer

Men are apt to play with their healths.— Sir William Temple

3. To contend, or take part, in a game; as, to play ball; hence, to gamble; as, he played for heavy stakes.

4. To perform on an instrument of music; as, to play on a flute.

One that... can play well on an instrument.— Ezek. xxxiii. 32.

Play, my friend, and charm the charmer.— George, Visc. Lansdowne Granville

5. To act; to behave; to practice deception.

His mother played false with a smith.— William Shakespeare

6. To move in any manner; especially, to move regularly with alternate or reciprocating motion; to operate; to act; as, the fountain plays.

The heart beats, the blood circulates, the lungs play.— George Cheyne

7. To move gayly; to wanton; to disport.

Even as the waving sedges play with wind.— William Shakespeare

The setting sun Plays on their shining arms and burnished helmets.— Joseph Addison

All fame is foreign but of true desert, Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.— Alexander Pope

8. To act on the stage; to personate a character.

A lord will hear your play to-night.— William Shakespeare

Courts are theaters where some men play.— John Donne

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.

Art thou alive? Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight.— William Shakespeare

(b) To use in a droll manner; to give a droll expression or application to; as, to play upon words.

1. To put in action or motion; as, to play cannon upon a fortification; to play a trump.

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

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

3. To perform, as a piece of music, on an instrument; as, to play a waltz on the violin.

4. To bring into sportive or wanton action; to exhibit in action; to execute; as, to play tricks.

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

5. To act or perform (a play); to represent in music action; as, to play a comedy; also, to act in the character of; to represent by acting; to simulate; to behave like; as, to play King Lear; to play the woman.

Thou canst play the rational if thou wilt.— Sir Walter Scott

6. To engage in, or go together with, as a contest for amusement or for a wager or prize; as, to play a game at baseball.

7. To keep in play, as a hooked fish, in order to land it.

To play hob, to play the part of a mischievous spirit; to work mischief. — To play off, to display; to show; to put in exercise; as, to play off tricks. — To play one's cards, to manage one's means or opportunities; to contrive. — Played out, tired out; exhausted; at the end of one's resources. colloquial

1. Amusement; sport; frolic; gambols.

2. Any exercise, or series of actions, intended for amusement or diversion; a game.

John naturally loved rough play.— John Arbuthnot

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.

4. Action; use; employment; exercise; practice; as, fair play; sword play; a play of wit. “The next who comes in play.” John Dryden

5. 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.— John Dryden

6. The representation or exhibition of a comedy or tragedy; as, he attends ever play.

7. Performance on an instrument of music.

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.” John Milton

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

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

Play actor, an actor of dramas. Prynne. — Play debt, a gambling debt. John Arbuthnot — Play pleasure, idle amusement. obsolete Francis, Baron Verulam 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.

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

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

<language, music> A language for real-time music synthesis. 1977.

["An Introduction to the Play Program", J. Chadabe ete al, Computer Music J 2,1 (1978)].

(1999-06-04)