Thesaurus results for PLAYED (UPON)

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

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Recent Examples of Synonyms for played (upon)

Verb

Their rackets—plunder, opium trafficking, and much else—were often run not by members of established yakuza gangs but by fixers and political operators who exploited their connections with the Imperial Japanese Army.

— Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
Our state definitely has major problems, which are exploited gleefully around each election cycle.

— Daniel Hernandez, Los Angeles Times, 7 Oct. 2026

Definition of exploited

Verb

Roughly half of the 10 patients in the study had some vision restoration after researchers injected them with a gene to make their retina produce a light-sensing protein so that it could be manipulated.

— O. Rose Broderick, STAT, 8 Oct. 2026
The senses of anyone entering these tombs were heavily manipulated.

— Jacqueline Ortoleva, Scientific American, 3 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.

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played up

played (upon)

played (with)

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“Played (upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/played%20%28upon%29. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of played (upon)

verb

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