play with

phrasal verb

played with; playing with; plays with

: to move or handle (something) with one's hands or fingers often without thinking

Stop playing with that pen and pay attention to what I'm saying.

: to handle, change, or deal with (something) in a careless way

I played with the radio for a while but couldn't get it to work.

It's important to teach your children not to play with guns/fire/matches.

Don't play with my heart/emotions.

You have to take this seriously. You're playing with people's lives!

: to think about (something) briefly and not very seriously

I played with the idea of moving to Chicago but ended up staying in New York.

Examples of play with in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Cats are notorious for playing with the packaging the very expensive item came in instead of actually using that very expensive item. —

Medea Giordano, WIRED, 5 Nov. 2024 Only Newman is a top eight seed favored for a deep run, playing with Parenteau as the #7 seed, and should cruise into the quarters. —

Todd Boss, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024 On his 80th birthday in 2011, we were asked to play with him at a special show at the Hollywood Bowl. —

Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 5 Nov. 2024 The cats on my records were the baddest cats in the world and Hendrix didn’t want to play with them. —

David Marchese, Vulture, 4 Nov. 2024 See all Example Sentences for play with