play at

phrasal verb

played at; playing at; plays at

1

: to do (something) in a way that is not serious

They were only playing at trying to fix the problem.

2

chiefly British : to play by pretending to be (someone or something)

She liked to play at doctors and nurses as a child.

—often used in the phrase play at being (something)

boys playing at being soldiers

3

British

—used to say in an annoyed way that one does not know the reason for someone's behavior

What is he playing at?

Examples of play at in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

James is still playing at a very high level at 40 years old. —Evan Massey, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 June 2025

Of the goalkeepers who played at least 900 minutes that season, seven performed worse by this metric. —Beren Cross, New York Times, 30 June 2025

The Detroit and Cleveland teams will play at the NBA arenas that currently exist, while Philadelphia is planning on a new building that will be completed hopefully by 2030. —CBS News, 30 June 2025

Last year, Capital Classics, which had been staging contemporary plays at other times of years, began directing more resources to its biggest event and now does two Shakespeare plays each summer. —Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 29 June 2025

Rhymes for play at

• begat
• bobcat
• chitchat
• doormat
• ducat
• eclat
• format
• hazmat
• muskrat
• nonfat
• polecat
• thereat