Word.ws English Dictionary

played it close to the hip

played it close to the hip is the simple past and past participle of play it close to the hip.

Meaning of play it close to the hip

Verb

play it close to the hip (third-person singular simple present plays it close to the hip, present participle playing it close to the hip, simple past and past participle played it close to the hip)

  1. To behave conservatively and discreetly.
    • Goodman wanted to play it close to the hip by starting the evening out with his more commercial arrangements—which fell flat with the audience; however, when he launched the band into Fletcher Henderson's arrangement of "King Porter Stomp," the fans went wild.2013, Michael Stephans, Experiencing Jazz: A Listener's Companion, page 101

Questions about played it close to the hip

What is played it close to the hip the simple past and past participle of?
Played it close to the hip is the simple past and past participle of play it close to the hip.

Words near played it close to the hip in the dictionary

  1. played into someone's hand
  2. played into someone's hands
  3. played into the hand of
  4. played into the hands of
  5. played it cheap
  6. played it close to the hip
  7. played it cool
  8. played it for all it's worth
  9. played it pear-shaped
  10. played it safe
  11. played it straight

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: played it close to the hip (page history and authors); play it close to the hip (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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