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play up
verb
- tr to emphasize or highlight
to play up one's best features
- informal.to behave irritatingly (towards)
- informal.intr (of a machine, car, etc) to function erratically
the car is playing up again
- informal.to hurt; give (one) pain or trouble
my back's playing me up again
- play up to
- to support (another actor) in a performance
- to try to gain favour with by flattery
Idioms and Phrases
Emphasize or publicize, as in In the press interview, the coach played up the importance of having a strong defense . [c. 1900] Also see play down ; play up to .Example Sentences
He added that he would "purposely play up the rivalry between Tom's character and mine off screen" as well as on.
Is there a chance of big Harry playing up front from the start here?
When Trump spoke on Wednesday, he played up the old tropes of rugged individualism for America and said our allies “profited at our expense.â€
His early roles in “Over the Edge,†“The Outsiders†and “Rumble Fish†may have played up his brooding nature, but don’t typecast him.
On travel teams, she always played up at least two age levels.
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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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