Word.ws English Dictionary

play the game

play the game verb: to behave fairly; to abide by the rules.

Verb

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

  1. To behave fairly; to abide by the rules.
    • And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat, / Or the selfish hope of a season's fame, / But his captain's hand on his shoulder smote / "Play up! play up! and play the game!"1892, Henry Newbolt, Vitaï Lampada
    • Myth #5— Acceptance and participation in the mainstream of society is automatically desirable. In order to be accepted you may have to compromise important personal values because average middle-American values are most important. You have to "play the game".1979 December 1, Ron Vachon, quoting Bernice Goodman, “Homosexuality: Changing Clinical Perspectives”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 19, page 3

play the game meaning in Malayalam

play the game in Malayalam

be fair, play fair, play by the rules
ന്യായമായും നിയമമനുസരിച്ചും പെരുമാറുക, മാന്യമായി പെരുമാറുക, കളിയിൽ സത്യസന്ധതയും നീതിയും പാലിക്കുക, അന്തസ്സായും സത്യസന്ധമായും പെരുമാറുക, നീതിയുക്തമായി പെരുമാറുക, ചട്ടമനുസരിച്ചു പ്രവർത്തിക്കുക

Synonyms of play the game

Forms of play the game

third-person singular presentplays the game
present participleplaying the game
past participleplayed the game
pastplayed the game

Questions about play the game

What does play the game mean?
Play the game means to behave fairly; to abide by the rules.
What is play the game in Malayalam?
Play the game in Malayalam is ന്യായമായും നിയമമനുസരിച്ചും പെരുമാറുക, മാന്യമായി പെരുമാറുക, കളിയിൽ സത്യസന്ധതയും നീതിയും പാലിക്കുക. See Play the game meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is play the game?
Play the game is a verb.
What is the past tense of play the game?
The past tense of play the game is played the game.

Words near play the game in the dictionary

  1. play the deuce with
  2. play the devil with
  3. play the dickens with
  4. play the field
  5. play the fool
  6. play the game
  7. play the gender card
  8. play the giddy goat
  9. play the giddy ox
  10. play the goat
  11. play the hand dealt

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: play the game (page history and authors); play the game (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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 the game.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/play_the_game. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.