endplay

endplay noun: a tactical play in which a defender is put on lead at a strategic moment, and then has to make a play that loses one or more tricks. Also the alternative form of end play.

Noun

endplay (countable and uncountable, plural endplays)

(countable) A tactical play in which a defender is put on lead at a strategic moment, and then has to make a play that loses one or more tricks
- At this point, South should have played a spade to dummy's ace, ruffed a spade and led her club king to catch West in a trump endplay, but she became flustered and lost two more tricks to go down one.2009 January 3, Phillip Alder, “What to Bid Next? That Depends on the Game You're Playing”, Bridge, in New York Times

Verb

endplay (third-person singular simple present endplays, present participle endplaying, simple past and past participle endplayed)

To make an endplay.
- Then a diamond lead endplayed West.2009 January 5, Phillip Alder, “From a Holiday Tournament, Two Points for the Price of One”, Bridge, in New York Times

Also used as

endplay is also the alternative form of end play.

Synonyms of endplay

throw-in

Forms of endplay

Noun
plural	endplays
Verb
third-person singular present	endplays
present participle	endplaying
past participle	endplayed
past	endplayed

Origin of endplay

From end + play.

Questions about endplay

What does endplay mean?: Endplay means a tactical play in which a defender is put on lead at a strategic moment, and then has to make a play that loses one or more tricks.
What part of speech is endplay?: Endplay can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of endplay?: The plural of endplay is endplays.

Words near endplay in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: endplay (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “endplay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/endplay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.