as in to use
to take unfair advantage of
the candidate played on the voters' prejudices
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for play (on or upon)
Verb
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Over the past few months, Mace has filed a bill seeking to ban transgender women from using women's bathrooms at the U.S. Capitol.—
Justin Gest,
Newsweek,
11 Feb. 2025 -
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.—
Staff report,
Hartford Courant,
11 Feb. 2025
Verb
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The isolation tank, communicating with other species, all of these things had very early roots in (the question) how can this be exploited?—
Georg Szalai,
The Hollywood Reporter,
3 Feb. 2025
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This is more dangerous than social media’s AI custom-delivering generally available videos to teens that exploit their anxieties to keep them online.—
Robert Fellmeth,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
3 Feb. 2025
Verb
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This perk can be abused in all horse races – like the wager in Kingdom Come 2's Miri Fajta quest – to win easily.—
Kristan Hawkins,
Newsweek,
6 Feb. 2025
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President Andrew Jackson famously abused this authority, and this led to the creation of the Civil Service Act.—
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
6 Feb. 2025
Verb
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Ann Scott Tyson/The Christian Science Monitor Meanwhile, Mr. Inagaki, the rickshaw puller, is leveraging his Mandarin and making connections on Chinese apps.—
Ann Scott Tyson,
The Christian Science Monitor,
7 Feb. 2025
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The filing outlines the company's strategy to leverage its management team's experience to identify and acquire a target business that can benefit from being publicly traded.—
Quartz Intelligence Newsroom,
Quartz,
7 Feb. 2025
Verb
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The 18-episode season made Laura’s death feel almost world-historic, peeling back the layers to reveal a grand, mythological evil manipulating events into shape.—
K. Austin Collins,
The Atlantic,
7 Feb. 2025
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The content is manipulated to appeal to potential lone-wolf recruits in the U.S. to start retribution against Israel's supporters in the U.S., particularly the Jewish community.—
Thomas G. Moukawsher,
Newsweek,
6 Feb. 2025
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Thesaurus Entries Near play (on or upon)
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“Play (on or upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/play%20%28on%20or%20upon%29. Accessed 16 Feb. 2025.
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