Word.ws English Dictionary

played Old Harry

played Old Harry is the simple past and past participle of play Old Harry.

Meaning of play Old Harry

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To play the devil; to make mischief.
    • By his accent and innocent style I detected he was not a colonial, so I got him to relate his history. He was an Englishman by birth, but had been to America, Spain, New Zealand, Tasmania, &c.; by his own make out had ever been a man of note, and had played Old Harry everywhere.1901, Miles Franklin, “’Possum Gully Left Behind. Hurrah! Hurrah!”, in My Brilliant Career, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 60

Questions about played Old Harry

What is played Old Harry the simple past and past participle of?
Played Old Harry is the simple past and past participle of play Old Harry.

Words near played Old Harry in the dictionary

  1. played nice
  2. played Nostradamus
  3. played number two
  4. played off
  5. played Old Gooseberry
  6. played Old Harry
  7. played Old Harry with
  8. played on
  9. played on someone's heartstrings
  10. played one against another
  11. played one's cards right

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: played Old Harry (page history and authors); play Old Harry (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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