Word.ws English Dictionary

playing by the rules

playing by the rules is the present participle and gerund of play by the rules.

Meaning of play by the rules

Verb

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

  1. to do what is expected.
    • Perhaps because it played by the rules while challenging them at the same time, Brokeback Mountain's place in film history is assured.2025 June 20, Nick Levine, “'In every theatre, people would leave': How 'gay cowboy movie' Brokeback Mountain challenged Hollywood – and the US”, in BBC
    Synonyms:
    play the game

Questions about playing by the rules

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

Words near playing by the rules in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: playing by the rules (page history and authors); play by the rules (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 by the rules.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/playing_by_the_rules. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.