Word.ws English Dictionary

playing it safe

playing it safe is the present participle and gerund of play it safe.

Meaning of play it safe

Verb

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

  1. To take a cautious, risk-free approach.
    • Deciding to play it safe, he joined his father's accounting firm rather than pursue an acting career.
    Antonyms:
    play big, go all in

Questions about playing it safe

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

Words near playing it safe in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: playing it safe (page history and authors); play it safe (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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