as in exploits
to control or take advantage of by artful, unfair, or insidious means
played upon the customer's vanity to convince her to buy the expensive makeup kit
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for plays (upon)
Verb
-
My Pafology, later retitled Fuck, a book that exploits nearly every Black stereotype.—
Lauren Morrow
September 9,
Literary Hub,
9 Sep. 2025 -
Whether through cyber operations, intellectual property theft, or now these scam centers, China exploits grey zones that provide strategic advantage while maintaining deniability.—
Mike Kuiken,
MSNBC Newsweek,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
But outside of the ring, Christy hides and represses her lesbianism and winds up marrying her trainer Jim Martin (Ben Foster), who manipulates and physically abuses her.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
5 Sep. 2025
-
After all, if an attacker hijacks the agent’s credentials or manipulates its input data, the agent could take harmful actions faster and more persistently than any human user.—
Michael DeCesare,
Forbes.com,
11 Aug. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Plays (upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/plays%20%28upon%29. Accessed 15 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share