Word.ws English Dictionary

played the field

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

Meaning of play the field

Verb

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

  1. (UK) To cut one's losses by betting on every racehorse other than the crowd favorite.
  2. (idiomatic) To have numerous romantic partners, without or before committing exclusively to one.
    • He says I'm the only one, but my friends say he's playing the field.

Questions about played the field

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

Words near played the field in the dictionary

  1. played the cat and banjo with
  2. played the clitar
  3. played the deuce with
  4. played the devil with
  5. played the dickens with
  6. played the field
  7. played the fool
  8. played the game
  9. played the giddy goat
  10. played the giddy ox
  11. played the hand one was dealt

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: played the field (page history and authors); play the field (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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