Word.ws English Dictionary

play small

play small verb: to play for low stakes; to aim low; to be unwilling to take risks; to be fearful.

Verb

play small (third-person singular simple present plays small, present participle playing small, simple past and past participle played small)

  1. (figuratively) To play for low stakes; to aim low; to be unwilling to take risks; to be fearful.
    • Near-synonym: play it safe
    Synonyms:
    play it safe
    Antonyms:
    play big

Synonyms of play small

Antonyms

Forms of play small

third-person singular presentplays small
present participleplaying small
past participleplayed small
pastplayed small

Questions about play small

What does play small mean?
Play small means to play for low stakes; to aim low; to be unwilling to take risks; to be fearful.
What part of speech is play small?
Play small is a verb.
What is the past tense of play small?
The past tense of play small is played small.

Words near play small in the dictionary

  1. play rooms
  2. play safe
  3. play second fiddle
  4. play silly beggars
  5. play silly buggers
  6. play small
  7. play someone at their own game
  8. play someone false
  9. play someone like a bass fiddle
  10. play someone like a fiddle
  11. play someone like a violin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: play small (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: “play small.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/play_small. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.