Word.ws English Dictionary

playing the odds

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

Meaning of play the odds

Verb

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

  1. To act, hoping for a particular, possible outcome.

Questions about playing the odds

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

Words near playing the odds in the dictionary

  1. playing the man and not the ball
  2. playing the man not the ball
  3. playing the man, not the ball
  4. playing the mischief with
  5. playing the Nazi card
  6. playing the odds
  7. playing the ponies
  8. playing the race card
  9. playing the same tape
  10. playing the skin flute
  11. playing the something card

Source and license

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