Word.ws English Dictionary

playing the field

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

Meaning of play the field

Verb

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

  1. (UK) To cut one's losses by betting on every racehorse other than the crowd favorite.
  2. (idiomatic) To have numerous romantic partners, without or before committing exclusively to one.
    • He says I'm the only one, but my friends say he's playing the field.

Questions about playing the field

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

Words near playing the field in the dictionary

  1. playing the cat and banjo with
  2. playing the clitar
  3. playing the deuce with
  4. playing the devil with
  5. playing the dickens with
  6. playing the field
  7. playing the fool
  8. playing the game
  9. playing the giddy goat
  10. playing the giddy ox
  11. playing the hand one is dealt

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: playing the field (page history and authors); play the field (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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