Word.ws English Dictionary

out of play

out of play prepositional phrase: unavailable to be played according to the rules of the game in question.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Unavailable to be played according to the rules of the game in question.
    • A foul cannot be awarded while the ball is out of play.
    • Bristol City have told their Championship rivals, including Huddersfield Town, that they will not be kicking the ball out of play this season, unless a player has suffered a genuine head injury.2019 August 5, Mel Booth, Emelio Galantini, Aidan McCartney, “Huddersfield Town and Championship told of Bristol City stance on kicking ball out”, in Examiner Live
  2. (figuratively) Not available for use.
    • That option is now out of play.

Questions about out of play

What does out of play mean?
Out of play means unavailable to be played according to the rules of the game in question.
What part of speech is out of play?
Out of play is a prepositional phrase.

Words near out of play in the dictionary

  1. out of one's tree
  2. out of one's wits
  3. out of order
  4. out of phase
  5. out of place
  6. out of play
  7. out of plumb
  8. out of pocket
  9. out of practice
  10. out of preparation
  11. out of print

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: out of play (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.

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