Word.ws English Dictionary

plays the field

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

Meaning of play the field

Verb

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

  1. (UK) To cut one's losses by betting on every racehorse other than the crowd favorite.
  2. (idiomatic) To have numerous romantic partners, without or before committing exclusively to one.
    • He says I'm the only one, but my friends say he's playing the field.

Questions about plays the field

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

Words near plays the field in the dictionary

  1. plays the cat and banjo with
  2. plays the clitar
  3. plays the deuce with
  4. plays the devil with
  5. plays the dickens with
  6. plays the field
  7. plays the fool
  8. plays the game
  9. plays the giddy goat
  10. plays the giddy ox
  11. plays the hand one is dealt

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plays the field (page history and authors); play the field (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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