Word.ws English Dictionary

playing it for all it's worth

playing it for all it's worth is the present participle and gerund of play it for all it's worth.

Meaning of play it for all it's worth

Verb

play it for all it's worth (third-person singular simple present plays it for all it's worth, present participle playing it for all it's worth, simple past and past participle played it for all it's worth)

  1. (idiomatic) to take full advantage of
  2. (idiomatic) To go the maximum extent; to go all the way
    • I tell you-all boys, when you-all got a hunch, play it for all it's worth. What's luck good for, if you all ain't to ride it? And when you-all ride it, ride like hell.1910 October, Jack London, Burning Daylight, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC

Questions about playing it for all it's worth

What is playing it for all it's worth the present participle and gerund of?
Playing it for all it's worth is the present participle and gerund of play it for all it's worth.

Words near playing it for all it's worth in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: playing it for all it's worth (page history and authors); play it for all it's worth (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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