Word.ws English Dictionary

playing one's cards right

playing one's cards right is the present participle and gerund of play one's cards right.

Meaning of play one's cards right

Verb

play one's cards right (third-person singular simple present plays one's cards right, present participle playing one's cards right, simple past and past participle played one's cards right)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To act correctly; to make the right moves.
    • If you play your cards right, you'll get the promotion you've been waiting for.

Questions about playing one's cards right

What is playing one's cards right the present participle and gerund of?
Playing one's cards right is the present participle and gerund of play one's cards right.

Words near playing one's cards right in the dictionary

  1. playing Old Harry
  2. playing Old Harry with
  3. playing on
  4. playing on someone's heartstrings
  5. playing one against another
  6. playing one's cards right
  7. playing one's cards well
  8. playing one's guts out
  9. playing one's hand right
  10. playing one's part
  11. playing out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: playing one's cards right (page history and authors); play one's cards right (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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