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

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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 If your child is constantly asking to play with your phone, consider the VTech Rock and Bop Music Player a happy solution. —

Cheryl Fenton, Parents, 2 Nov. 2024 And while there are so many colors to play with, be sure to consider the style of your home too. —

Cameron Beall, Southern Living, 2 Nov. 2024 Samsung users are currently falling ever further behind, as Pixel and other phone users install Android 15 with its major security and privacy upgrades, and iPhone users start playing with iOS 18.1 and its new AI upgrades. —

Zak Doffman, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2024 See all Example Sentences for play with