Word.ws English Dictionary

plays it pear-shaped

plays it pear-shaped is the third-person singular simple present indicative of play it pear-shaped.

Meaning of play it pear-shaped

Verb

play it pear-shaped (third-person singular simple present plays it pear-shaped, present participle playing it pear-shaped, simple past and past participle played it pear-shaped)

  1. (dated, RAF slang) To avoid committing oneself to a single course of action; to go with the flow, take it easy.
    • I thought I'd play it pear-shaped with the Borough Engineer and asked him whose property it was anyway when it was in my garden — if the Council put it there enough times, it meant they were trying to get rid of it even though they didn't own it.1964, Densil Barr, “I Hate You Lamp-Post, You Know I Love You”, in Joseph F. McCrindle, editor, The Transatlantic Review, number 17, page 112

Questions about plays it pear-shaped

What is plays it pear-shaped the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Plays it pear-shaped is the third-person singular simple present indicative of play it pear-shaped.

Words near plays it pear-shaped in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plays it pear-shaped (page history and authors); play it pear-shaped (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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