Word.ws English Dictionary

plays it close to the hip

plays it close to the hip is the third-person singular simple present indicative of play it close to the hip.

Meaning of play it close to the hip

Verb

play it close to the hip (third-person singular simple present plays it close to the hip, present participle playing it close to the hip, simple past and past participle played it close to the hip)

  1. To behave conservatively and discreetly.
    • Goodman wanted to play it close to the hip by starting the evening out with his more commercial arrangements—which fell flat with the audience; however, when he launched the band into Fletcher Henderson's arrangement of "King Porter Stomp," the fans went wild.2013, Michael Stephans, Experiencing Jazz: A Listener's Companion, page 101

Questions about plays it close to the hip

What is plays it close to the hip the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Plays it close to the hip is the third-person singular simple present indicative of play it close to the hip.

Words near plays it close to the hip in the dictionary

  1. plays into someone's hand
  2. plays into someone's hands
  3. plays into the hand of
  4. plays into the hands of
  5. plays it cheap
  6. plays it close to the hip
  7. plays it cool
  8. plays it for all it's worth
  9. plays it pear-shaped
  10. plays it safe
  11. plays it straight

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plays it close to the hip (page history and authors); play it close to the hip (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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