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Glite Dictionary
to play a joke on

to play a joke on

5 3.2
To trick someone in a friendly way to make them laugh
  • phrasal verb
  • Informal
translation icon : hacer una broma a
  • We decided to play a joke on our friend by hiding his favorite chair.
  • thought someone was playing a joke on
  • just playing a joke on

We were like, now, like you said, you see what's up now, We were playing a joke on you.

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Examples

Synonyms

to trick
vsto play a joke on
326 3.5

To make someone believe something false so you can get what you want

is more playful and meant to amuse rather than to profit or harm
to put on
vsto play a joke on
  • Informal
19 7.2

To trick someone, often as a joke

is more focused on playful deception toward a person rather than a scheme
to prank
vsto play a joke on
  • Informal
16 2.9

To play a trick on someone to make people laugh

is broader, covering both small acts and short playful deceptions
to play tricks
vsto play a joke on
15 3.0

To make someone believe something that is not true as a joke

is the same but emphasizes a single directed act on someone
to play a trick on
vsto play a joke on
6 2.8

To fool someone as a joke

is the same but stresses playful deception rather than harm or gain
to play pranks
vsto play a joke on
4 3.1

Do small tricks to surprise or make someone laugh

is similar but can include brief verbal or small deceptive acts
to hoax
vsto play a joke on
2 4.5

To trick people into believing something false

is usually smaller in scale and more directly aimed at one person
to jape
vsto play a joke on
  • Archaic
1 8.7

To make a playful joke or trick someone to make them laugh

is similar but is used more for direct acts on a person
to pull someone's leg
vsto play a joke on
  • Informal
1 4.1

To tell someone something that is not true to make them laugh

is more general, including physical or wider mischievous acts

How Harmful

to humiliate
  • Offensive
414 6.1
to trick
326 3.5
to play a joke on
  • Informal
5 3.2

Surface Forms

play a joke on infinitive
played a joke on past
played a joke on past participle
playing a joke on present participle
plays a joke on third person singular

Morphology

play + a + joke + on

The meaning 'to trick or deceive someone in a playful way' is directly derivable from the parts: 'play' (to perform/engage in an activity) + 'joke' (an amusing act) + 'on' (directed at someone), so a learner who knows the constituents can infer the sense. This construction is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common way to express directing a joking act at someone, making it transparently compositional for B1 learners.

Etymology

Play a joke on comes from the picture of someone playing a little act and doing the joke on another person to make people laugh. So it means 'to trick someone in a playful or friendly way'.