Word.ws English Dictionary

play someone at their own game

play someone at their own game is the alternative form of beat someone at their own game.

Meaning of beat someone at their own game

Verb

beat someone at their own game (third-person singular simple present beats someone at their own game, present participle beating someone at their own game, simple past beat someone at their own game, past participle beaten someone at their own game or (colloquial) beat someone at their own game)

  1. (figuratively) To successfully use someone's methods and strategies against them.

Forms of play someone at their own game

third-person singular presentplays someone at their own game
present participleplaying someone at their own game
past participleplayed someone at their own game
pastplayed someone at their own game

Questions about play someone at their own game

What is play someone at their own game the alternative form of?
Play someone at their own game is the alternative form of beat someone at their own game.

Words near play someone at their own game in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: play someone at their own game (page history and authors); beat someone at their own game (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 someone at their own game.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/play_someone_at_their_own_game. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.