Word.ws English Dictionary

playing fair

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

Meaning of play fair

Verb

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

  1. To behave equitably and honestly.
    • Police interrogators don't have to play fair: they are allowed to lie to or coerce a witness.

Questions about playing fair

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

Words near playing fair in the dictionary

  1. playing dead
  2. playing dirty
  3. playing doctor
  4. playing down
  5. playing dumb
  6. playing fair
  7. playing fast and loose
  8. playing favorites
  9. playing field
  10. playing fields
  11. playing fine

Source and license

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