How to Use make a play for in a Sentence

make a play for

idiom
  • Good for Bacon to step up and make a play for us early there.
    oregonlive, 15 Nov. 2020
  • Democrats had also hoped to make a play for the Iowa Senate seat held by Grassley.
    Jonathan Weisman, BostonGlobe.com, 7 June 2022
  • Zhao, one of FTX’s first investors, stepped in to make a play for his former rival.
    Brian Cheung, NBC News, 18 Nov. 2022
  • The Niners are one game back of the Seahawks for the division lead while the Cardinals, at 4-6, are looking to make a play for the wild card.
    Ian Firstenberg, Chicago Tribune, 21 Nov. 2022
  • Whether that's a stop, make a play for somebody else, take a charge, get a 50/50 ball, stop an offensive rebound.
    Mark Medina, USA TODAY, 19 July 2021
  • The question now is whether or not the club can right itself in time to make a play for advancing to the knockout stage of the competition.
    Pat Brennan, The Enquirer, 12 July 2020
  • And now, co-star J. Smith Cameron, who plays the savvy Gerri, can make a play for her first trophy after two previous noms.
    Clayton Davis, Variety, 26 Apr. 2023
  • And now, co-star J. Smith Cameron, who plays the savvy Gerri, can make a play for her first trophy after two previous noms.
    Clayton Davis, Variety, 26 Apr. 2023
  • Lohani, who is studying Tata’s foray into airlines, says the group should make a play for Air India.
    Ragini Saxena, Bloomberg.com, 6 Dec. 2020
  • Utah was already in good position with Saunders Jr., but Smith deciding to make a play for an eleventh-hour face-to-face meeting put it over the top.
    Josh Newman, The Salt Lake Tribune, 3 Apr. 2022
  • Much of the content of the letters is about wider issues of diplomacy than simply Mary’s attempts to reclaim the throne of Scotland or make a play for the throne of England, Doran says.
    Stephanie Pappas, Scientific American, 8 Feb. 2023
  • Ironically, both sides make a play for better long-term returns.
    Chris Carosa, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2023
  • In a digital mashup that could reshape the retail landscape, Walmart is teaming up with Microsoft to make a play for the video app TikTok.
    Charisse Jones, USA TODAY, 27 Aug. 2020
  • In the video below, Roy (No. 99) uses great hands, a solid rip technique, and fantastic lateral movement to make a play for only a 1-yard gain.
    Lance Reisland, cleveland, 11 Jan. 2023
  • Also, any bidder with the scale and resources to make a play for EA will likely want to see how the Microsoft-Activision deal plays out with regulators.
    Dan Gallagher, WSJ, 2 Feb. 2022
  • With no first-round pick this year, Miami also would have to do some maneuvering to make a play for Jackson, as the team cannot currently sign him to an offer sheet.
    Nate Davis, USA TODAY, 8 Mar. 2023
  • While neither is projected to make a play for All-Defensive teams in the near future, having agile size like that will make life tougher on opposing guards.
    Morten Jensen, Forbes, 17 Apr. 2022
  • When Durant requested a trade from the Nets last summer, there were questions about whether the Celtics could make a play for the star forward to pair him with Tatum and create one of the most explosive wing pairings the game has ever seen.
    Adam Himmelsbach, BostonGlobe.com, 5 Dec. 2022
  • Any team jumping ahead of Indianapolis for a signal-caller would position quarterbacks to be three of the top four picks ... or a franchise looking for an elite pass rusher could make a play for Anderson or Wilson.
    Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz, USA TODAY, 27 Apr. 2023
  • Of course, Kranz himself could make a play for the breakthrough director, but that category seems to be dominated by women, similar to last year when three of the five were occupied by female filmmakers.
    Clayton Davis, Variety, 20 Oct. 2021
  • To truly make a play for independent and moderate voters, the GOP will need to develop a policy agenda that similarly goes on the offensive.
    Patrick T. Brown, CNN, 10 Mar. 2023
  • The candidates not named Trump basically can go all-in with early nominating states like Iowa—and, maybe, New Hampshire as a back-up plan—or make a play for a national audience in conservative media outlets.
    Philip Elliott, Time, 17 Aug. 2023
  • Up until this point in the offseason, reports and rumors suggested that the 49ers were either going to make a play for a dramatic upgrade in Deshaun Watson or find a backup with experience to play behind Garoppolo.
    Vincent Frank, Forbes, 6 Apr. 2021
  • Some analysts also have suggested that PayPal could make a play for struggling online brokerage Robinhood, which just announced layoffs Tuesday.
    Paul R. La Monica, CNN, 27 Apr. 2022
  • By that token, Bass could theoretically also make a play for an unlikely June victory, but her financial resources are far more limited.
    Julia Wick, Los Angeles Times, 27 May 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'make a play for.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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