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Glite Dictionary
🔄 To unfold 🏁 To finish playing 🪫 To run out
to play out

to play out

18 3.0
To continue a game or match until it ends
  • phrasal verb
  • /pleɪ aʊt/
translation icon : jugar hasta el final
  • There's nothing to be done, but play out the game and leave the decisions to God.
  • game played out
  • scenario played out
  • drama played out

It's like this one, if you just like play this game out, obviously it becomes in the long term, kids just grow up with it.

Examples

  • You should have just let the game play out, Dave.

    Stream (2024)

  • Shaywitz of Yale has seen this dichotomy play out in patients with dyslexia.

    Academic text (1996)

  • It's like this one, if you just like play this game out, obviously it becomes in the long term, kids just grow up with it.

    Tom Bilyeu

  • You put a dime in him, you gotta let the whole song play out.

    Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

  • The ref's really letting them play out there tonight.

    Slap Shot 3: The Junior League (2008)

  • Let it play out.

    Appaloosa (2008)

  • They will play out the vengeance fantasy till the bitter end.

  • As the "Government vs. Free Market" saga plays out, the regulatory landscape is being reshaped.

    Blog text (22)

  • Nora wipes a tear from her eye as she watches the tragedy play out.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • The team decided to let the match play out to see how the strategy would unfold.

Synonyms

to play
vsto play out
∞ 1.0

Take part in a game or sport for fun

continues until the event ends regardless of result
to play the game
vsto play out
137 3.3

To take part in a contest or activity by following the rules

continues until the end regardless of outcome rather than following rules

Antonyms

to quit
668 1.0

To stop doing a habit or activity like smoking

forfeit
4 6.8

Taken away as a punishment or by law

How Complete

finish
125 1.1
to play out
18 3.0
to continue
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

play out infinitive
played out past
played out past participle
playing out present participle
plays out third person singular

Morphology

play + out

The meaning 'to continue playing ... until it finishes' is directly derivable from combining 'play' (to take part in a game) with the particle 'out', which commonly signals completion or carrying something through to the end. This compositional phrasal-verb pattern is regular and cross-linguistically accessible, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can reasonably infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Play out comes from sports and games where you play the match through out to the final whistle. So to play out a game means to 'continue playing to the end', even if the result is already clear.