play off
verb
Forms plays off playing off played off
- verb (transitive, often with as) To portray (something) (as unimportant); to dismiss or make light of (a factor in a situation, or one's embarrassment about it); to pretend not to be embarrassed, upset, impressed, or otherwise affected by (it). “After tripping, Sara tried to play her embarrassment off by laughing with everyone else.”
- verb (transitive) To set (other people) against one another: to induce competition between them, especially in a covert way so that they do not realize the degree to which they have been played (manipulated). “Stalin's propensity to play off his subordinates against one another is a well-studied theme.”
- verb (sports, intransitive, transitive) To compete in a play-off; to compete against (an opponent) in a play-off.
- verb (dated, transitive) To display; to show; to put in exercise. “to play off tricks”
Synonyms
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “play off”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details