Word.ws English Dictionary

playing booty

playing booty is the present participle and gerund of play booty.

Meaning of play booty

Verb

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

  1. (archaic, idiomatic) To hustle (play deliberately badly at a game or sport in an attempt to encourage players to challenge one).
    • So that we understand what we ought to do; but when we come to deliberate, we play booty against ourselves1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC
  2. (archaic, broadly, figuratively, idiomatic) To double-cross someone.
    • Oh, we see through you, John Silver; you want to play booty, that’s what’s wrong with you.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC

Questions about playing booty

What is playing booty the present participle and gerund of?
Playing booty is the present participle and gerund of play booty.

Words near playing booty in the dictionary

  1. playing at
  2. playing away
  3. playing back
  4. playing ball
  5. playing big
  6. playing booty
  7. playing both sides against the middle
  8. playing by ear
  9. playing by the rules
  10. playing card
  11. playing cards

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: playing booty (page history and authors); play booty (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “playing booty.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/playing_booty. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.