played (upon)

verb

past tense of play (upon)
as in exploited
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 played (upon)
  1. exploited
  2. manipulated
Verb
  • In their complaint, the US alleged that Alfozan used an OpenAI productivity agent to research which conference rooms might be best exploited for his spying.
    — Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 19 Oct. 2026
  • In one case, Claude exploited a software flaw on a university server to run commands after a scientific analysis tool stopped working.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of exploited
Verb
  • But the things that tend to be more manageable are interiors, like a child's bedroom, but even those have so many details that have to be thought of and designed and built and manipulated.
    — Kat Chen, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 Oct. 2026
  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday the Pentagon has not manipulated the service.
    — Jennifer Jacobs, CBS News, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of manipulated
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

played up
played (upon)
played (with)
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Cite this Entry

“Played (upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/played%20%28upon%29. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

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