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play hardball



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Idioms and Phrases

Act aggressively and ruthlessly, as in It's only a month before the election, and I'm sure they'll start to play hardball . This term originated in baseball, where it alludes to using the standard ball as opposed to the slightly larger and minimally softer ball of softball. It was transferred to describe aggressive behavior only in the 1970s.
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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

But for the best outcome, he says, India will have to "play hardball. Basically, tell the US - we're open to negotiations on other fronts, but don't destabilise our agriculture".

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But given their relatively toothless actions so far, I think Democratic leadership will need their spines stiffened to play hardball.

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Meanwhile, DirecTV decided to play hardball this Tuesday by launching a $69.99-a-month “MySports” streaming bundle, which would bring together “more than 40 sports and broadcast channels” to customers in at least 24 U.S. cities for now, per Front Office Sports.

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And it’s always important to remember that a decision to play hardball with China on the economic front could also increase the risk of a military confrontation leading to full-scale war, even to World War III.

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Harold Daggett, the leader of the ILA, was prepared to play hardball, telling workers on a picket line on Tuesday night, “nothing’s gonna move without us.”

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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