Word.ws English Dictionary

plays by the rules

plays by the rules is the third-person singular simple present indicative of play by the rules.

Meaning of play by the rules

Verb

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

  1. to do what is expected.
    • Perhaps because it played by the rules while challenging them at the same time, Brokeback Mountain's place in film history is assured.2025 June 20, Nick Levine, “'In every theatre, people would leave': How 'gay cowboy movie' Brokeback Mountain challenged Hollywood – and the US”, in BBC
    Synonyms:
    play the game

Questions about plays by the rules

What is plays by the rules the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Plays by the rules is the third-person singular simple present indicative of play by the rules.

Words near plays by the rules in the dictionary

  1. plays ball
  2. plays big
  3. plays booty
  4. plays both sides against the middle
  5. plays by ear
  6. plays by the rules
  7. plays cheat
  8. plays chicken
  9. plays Cupid
  10. plays dead
  11. plays dirty

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plays by the rules (page history and authors); play by the rules (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “plays by the rules.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/plays_by_the_rules. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.