Word.ws English Dictionary

plays fast and loose

plays fast and loose is the third-person singular simple present indicative of play fast and loose.

Meaning of play fast and loose

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To ignore proper behavior or social conventions, especially when it suits one's purpose.
    • I cannot say that there were any outright lies in the editorial, but it does play fast and loose with the truth.
  2. (idiomatic) To be recklessly inaccurate, inappropriate, or otherwise ignoring guidelines and conventions.
  3. (idiomatic) To act in a tricky, inconstant way, saying one thing and doing another.

Questions about plays fast and loose

What is plays fast and loose the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Plays fast and loose is the third-person singular simple present indicative of play fast and loose.

Words near plays fast and loose in the dictionary

  1. plays dirty
  2. plays doctor
  3. plays down
  4. plays dumb
  5. plays fair
  6. plays fast and loose
  7. plays favorites
  8. plays fine
  9. plays first fiddle
  10. plays for love
  11. plays for time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plays fast and loose (page history and authors); play fast and loose (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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