Word.ws English Dictionary

played small

played small is the simple past and past participle of play small.

Meaning of play small

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

Questions about played small

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

Words near played small in the dictionary

  1. played politics
  2. played possum
  3. played pussy
  4. played second fiddle
  5. played silly buggers
  6. played small
  7. played someone at their own game
  8. played someone like a bass fiddle
  9. played someone like a fiddle
  10. played someone like a violin
  11. played stupid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: played small (page history and authors); 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: “played small.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/played_small. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.