to play off
4
4.6
- phrasal verb
- /pleɪ ɔf/
- Just like The Big Sleep, you're hooked by how well the two leads play off each other.
- play off each other
Loading YouTube…
Watch on YouTubeHe, he named it because it's it's playing off the word of altruism.
- He, he named it because it's it's playing off the word of altruism.
- There isn't any historical record to kind of play off of to figure out what the next best move is.
- I've also got some really pretty acorns and pine cones and I thought that this kind of theme would play off this container really well.
- I think this is deep rooted misogyny that were playing off as a joke and none of the women in the room are laughing.
- Improv, Like how much do you guys get to sort of just play off of, you know, let let a moment kind of have its moment have its moment.
- To play off of the title of the film, we are going to introduce some peppermint flavored items.
- Not as something that here's a key thing playing off of essence essentially takes on human form.
- So you get this almost like you overshoot on the other side and it's playing off the being a little bit ahead of the curve.
Examples
-
The comedian expertly played off the audience's laughter, creating a dynamic and interactive show.
-
Fey proved herself an equally brilliant author last year with the success of Bossypants, a book that plays off her nerdy feminist persona.
Blog text (19) -
And then we get another one that is playing off of, obviously Descartes, right?
-
He, he named it because it's it's playing off the word of altruism.
-
Have I used other characters to play off my lead character's hard-wiring?
Academic text (2009) -
And so the people are just playing off of each other and sort of propelling these scenarios forward.
-
The Akron paper found a headline that played off the idea of a full belly.
Blog text (19) -
To play off of the title of the film, we are going to introduce some peppermint flavored items.
-
It really seems to play off of the color of the plummy shirt I'm wearing.
-
These premises gave Battlestar Galactica an ideal foundation to play off the headlines of the day.
Academic text (2009)
Synonyms
4
8.0
Laugh at someone or treat something serious as a joke
1
5.0
To copy someone's actions to make a joke
1
4.2
To copy someone in a funny way
Antonyms
How Creative
Surface Forms
Morphology
play + off
The overall sense ‘use something as material or leverage’ is related to the core meaning of 'play' (use/perform) and a non-literal particle 'off' (against/from), so there is a recognisable compositional link. However, the specific pragmatic sense of exploiting one feature to produce humor or effect is a phrasal-verb usage that is not fully predictable from the constituents alone, so a B1 learner who knows the words may still need exposure to this sense.
Etymology
The phrasal verb play off comes from the stage and music world, where a performer uses another person's line or sound to create a new joke or effect. To play off someone's words or actions is to react to them in a clever way, so it means 'to use something as a basis for humor, performance, or action'.