as in to exploit
to control or take advantage of by artful, unfair, or insidious means
played upon the customer's vanity to convince her to buy the expensive makeup kit
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for play (upon)
Verb
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Phishing, malware and misinformation relentlessly exploit weak points in online systems.—
Akram Atallah,
Forbes.com,
15 Aug. 2025 -
During the leak, former and current customers' information was exploited, including names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and more personal details.—
Shelby Slade,
AZCentral.com,
15 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can't be manipulated for political purposes.—
Hugh Cameron,
MSNBC Newsweek,
4 Aug. 2025
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Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.—
David Zimmermann,
The Washington Examiner,
3 Aug. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Play (upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/play%20%28upon%29. Accessed 20 Aug. 2025.
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