Thesaurus results for PLAY UPON

play (upon)

verb

Definition of play (upon)

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

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Recent Examples of Synonyms for play (upon)

Verb

Under Moreno, the Angels squandered the prime of Mike Trout and failed to exploit the Black Swan event that was Ohtani.

— Andy McCullough, New York Times, 4 Sep. 2026
This means Astra can find and exploit previously unknown security flaws without human oversight, under the right conditions.

— Emily Forlini, Fortune, 3 Sep. 2026

Definition of exploit

Verb

Last Wednesday, Meta reached a settlement with the attorneys general of forty-seven states, who had sued it for illegally manipulating the attention of children.

— Benjamin Wallace-Wells, New Yorker, 30 Aug. 2026
The finding could matter for quantum computers, where lasers are used to manipulate qubits and even tiny changes in their interactions can affect the accuracy of quantum operations.

— Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 30 Aug. 2026

Definition of manipulate

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play up

play (upon)

playwear

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“Play (upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/play%20%28upon%29. Accessed 5 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of play (upon)

verb

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