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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In the Syrian Arab Republic, there was a risk of the group exploiting security vacuums after the fall of the Syrian government of Bashar Al-Assad on December 8.—
Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab,
Forbes,
15 Feb. 2025
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But in other cases, there’s little justification for tracking your whereabouts, which then can be exploited by apps, ad services or even hackers.—
Kelvin Chan,
The Denver Post,
15 Feb. 2025
Verb
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Today, Hildebrandt is behind bars after pleading guilty to abusing the children of family vlogger and business partner Ruby Franke, who also pleaded guilty to the same crimes and is currently in prison.—
Christine Pelisek,
People.com,
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)
Cite this Entry
“Play (on or upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/play%20%28on%20or%20upon%29. Accessed 21 Feb. 2025.
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