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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The Kremlin is also exploiting frictions between the United States and Europe over the latter’s reservations about the Iran war.—
Sudarsan Raghavan,
New Yorker,
28 Apr. 2026 -
China is currently exploiting its salt lakes to source potassium and lithium.—
Ameya Paleja,
Interesting Engineering,
27 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Meanwhile, college and professional athletes have also been caught trying to manipulate prediction markets as online sports betting has exploded.—
Jason Ma,
Fortune,
2 May 2026
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For decades, people have used tools such as Photoshop to manipulate digital imagery.—
Lila Shroff,
The Atlantic,
2 May 2026
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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 4 May. 2026.
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