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)
Verb
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Other social welfare programs have safety valves to protect weak, incapacitated or disabled clients from being exploited by people in power.—
Carol Marbin Miller,
Miami Herald,
2 Apr. 2026 -
Regardless of their work ethic, intellect and creativity, capital has always exploited them but never been willing to partner with them.—
Jacob Walthour,
New York Daily News,
2 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Additionally, advanced signal-processing techniques can help identify whether messages are genuinely coming from different sources or are being manipulated by a single malicious actor.—
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
6 Apr. 2026
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During this time, Duggar manipulated the victim’s underwear and grazed her genitals.—
Assistant Editor,
Los Angeles Times,
1 Apr. 2026
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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 7 Apr. 2026.
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