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
Relevance
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for play (upon)
Verb
-
The Criminal Division will not allow foreign actors to exploit the American financial system and use it as a safe haven for the proceeds of their corruption.—
Bonny Chu,
FOXNews.com,
19 May 2026 -
Brunson’s defense and the lack of rim protection from Towns remain weaknesses, but nobody has come close to exploiting them so far.—
Tony Jones,
New York Times,
18 May 2026
Verb
-
In most cases, similar to engine controls, this climate control system can be checked for codes and the various modes manipulated with a scan tool.—
John Paul Senior Manager Public Affairs And Traffic Safety Aaa Northeast,
Hartford Courant,
16 May 2026
-
This likely created new evolutionary pressure for specialized hand use during tasks such as carrying objects, manipulating tools, or gesturing.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
16 May 2026
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.
Cite this Entry
“Play (upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/play%20%28upon%29. Accessed 22 May. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
