Word.ws English Dictionary

playing it close to the hip

playing it close to the hip is the present participle and gerund of play it close to the hip.

Meaning of play it close to the hip

Verb

play it close to the hip (third-person singular simple present plays it close to the hip, present participle playing it close to the hip, simple past and past participle played it close to the hip)

  1. To behave conservatively and discreetly.
    • Goodman wanted to play it close to the hip by starting the evening out with his more commercial arrangements—which fell flat with the audience; however, when he launched the band into Fletcher Henderson's arrangement of "King Porter Stomp," the fans went wild.2013, Michael Stephans, Experiencing Jazz: A Listener's Companion, page 101

Questions about playing it close to the hip

What is playing it close to the hip the present participle and gerund of?
Playing it close to the hip is the present participle and gerund of play it close to the hip.

Words near playing it close to the hip in the dictionary

  1. playing into someone's hand
  2. playing into someone's hands
  3. playing into the hand of
  4. playing into the hands of
  5. playing it cheap
  6. playing it close to the hip
  7. playing it cool
  8. playing it for all it's worth
  9. playing it pear-shaped
  10. playing it safe
  11. playing it straight

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: playing it close to the hip (page history and authors); play it close to the hip (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 it close to the hip.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/playing_it_close_to_the_hip. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.