playing (upon)

verb

present participle of play (upon)
as in exploiting
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 playing (upon)
  1. exploiting
  2. manipulating
Verb
  • Most real-world cybercrime still relies on easier and cheaper methods, such as exploiting software vulnerabilities, stealing credentials, phishing, malware and ransomware.
    — Chetan Jaiswal, The Conversation, 30 July 2026
  • Proofpoint and the National Security Agency jointly warned last week that the group, also tracked as Laundry Bear and Void Blizzard, had been carrying out similar attacks by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in an email service from Zimbra.
    — Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 30 July 2026
Definition of exploiting
Verb
  • By manipulating network traffic, the attackers redirect guests to fake sign-in pages without first sending a phishing email or compromising the PC.
    — Zak Doffman, Forbes.com, 1 Aug. 2026
  • What is your reaction to Drew being the one to rat you out about lying and manipulating Angela with your dead mother story?
    — Matt Minton, Variety, 31 July 2026
Definition of manipulating
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

playing up
playing (upon)
playing (with)
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Playing (upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/playing%20%28upon%29. Accessed 6 Aug. 2026.

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