Thesaurus results for PLAY (UPON)

play (upon)

verb

Definition of play (upon)

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

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for play (upon)

Verb

That could be an area González looks to exploit Sunday, using the pace and creativity of Miami’s attacking stars to strike before San Diego can reorganize defensively.

— Tyler Carmona, Miami Herald, 19 Sep. 2026
The document, which was highly classified and written in Arabic, suggested that Hamas was planning to exploit the hostage families’ protests to fracture Israeli society.

— Ruth Margalit, New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2026

Definition of exploit

Verb

Posters are editing and manipulating the recordings to distort their content.

— Jennifer McRae, CBS News, 16 Sep. 2026
But even if the risks are merely bad—like hacking into a single financial institution or hospital, manipulating the stock market, or taking out an electrical grid—suing a company after the fact won’t really provide the outcome society wants.

— Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 15 Sep. 2026

Definition of manipulate

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Browse Nearby Words

play up

play (upon)

playwear

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“Play (upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/play%20%28upon%29. Accessed 22 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of play (upon)

verb

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