from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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.
[1913 Webster]
As Cannace was playing in her walk. --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play! --Pope.
[1913 Webster]
And some, the darlings of their Lord,
Play smiling with the flame and sword. --Keble.
[1913 Webster]
2. To act with levity or thoughtlessness; to trifle; to be
careless.
[1913 Webster]
"Nay," quod this monk, "I have no lust to pleye."
--Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
Men are apt to play with their healths. --Sir W.
Temple.
[1913 Webster]
3. To contend, or take part, in a game; as, to play ball;
hence, to gamble; as, he played for heavy stakes.
[1913 Webster]
4. To perform on an instrument of music; as, to play on a
flute.
[1913 Webster]
One that . . . can play well on an instrument.
--Ezek.
xxxiii. 32.
[1913 Webster]
Play, my friend, and charm the charmer. --Granville.
[1913 Webster]
5. To act; to behave; to practice deception.
[1913 Webster]
His mother played false with a smith. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
6. To move in any manner; especially, to move regularly with
alternate or reciprocating motion; to operate; to act; as,
the fountain plays.
[1913 Webster]
The heart beats, the blood circulates, the lungs
play. --Cheyne.
[1913 Webster]
7. To move gayly; to wanton; to disport.
[1913 Webster]
Even as the waving sedges play with wind. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
The setting sun
Plays on their shining arms and burnished helmets.
--Addison.
[1913 Webster]
All fame is foreign but of true desert,
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.
--Pope.
[1913 Webster]
8. To act on the stage; to personate a character.
[1913 Webster]
A lord will hear your play to-night. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
Courts are theaters where some men play. --Donne.
[1913 Webster]
{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.
[1913 Webster]
Art thou alive?
Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight.
--Shak.
[1913 Webster]
(b) To use in a droll manner; to give a droll expression
or application to; as, to play upon words.
[1913 Webster]