play with

phrasal verb

played with; playing with; plays with

1

: to move or handle (something) with one's hands or fingers often without thinking

Stop playing with that pen and pay attention to what I'm saying.

2

: to handle, change, or deal with (something) in a careless way

I played with the radio for a while but couldn't get it to work.

It's important to teach your children not to play with guns/fire/matches.

Don't play with my heart/emotions.

You have to take this seriously. You're playing with people's lives!

3

: to think about (something) briefly and not very seriously

I played with the idea of moving to Chicago but ended up staying in New York.

Examples of play with in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Disinterested is too strong a word to use in describing the Bills over their past few games, but let’s see this team play with some juice. —Jeff Howe, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2025

The Royals picked up 149 yards on four plays with 75 more yards coming on 54 plays with Gibson accounting for a 65-yard scoring run and a 28-yard screen pass. —Darren Lauber, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 24 Oct. 2025

His paintings played with icons in all their forms, from Mother Teresa and Indira Gandhi to Bollywood stars and mythological figures from literary epics. —Oscar Holland, CNN Money, 24 Oct. 2025

While there’s a comfort to the classic steakhouse, plenty of proprietors have pushed the envelope by experimenting with aging, sourcing high-quality beef from around the world, incorporating global flavors, and playing with live-fire cooking. —Jeremy Repanich, Robb Report, 24 Oct. 2025