to play small
1
7.7
- phrasal verb
:
no arriesgarse
- To succeed in life, you must stop playing small and embrace your full potential.
How often do we find ourselves playing smaller to appease the people around us?
- How often do we find ourselves playing smaller to appease the people around us?
- It can get so comfortable to just be who we've always been and to play small.
- So you learned early to be in survival mode, or you learn to play small, or you learn to people, please.
- And whether it's to play small, whatever the character logical defect is, it's not a defect.
- And, and what he got from that is you, you know, the person, you know, what he got was not that I was playing small or playing safe.
Examples
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If you'll remember that this mission of yours is so much bigger than you, then whenever you feel yourself wanting to play small, slack off, or aim low (in an attempt to avoid failure, rejection, looking bad, or getting anything "wrong"), you might just find the clarity and the cajones to choose otherwise.
Blog text (19) -
I missed out on a lot due to fear of failure, so I kept playing small.
Blog text (20) -
When you catch yourself playing small, what do you do?
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For a while, it felt "safe" to play small.
Blog text (2) -
I gave myself permission to play small, in little yet insidious ways daily.
Blog text (31) -
You perpetuate that habit of playing small every single day.
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So don't play small, don't hold yourself back.
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Too many personal chefs play small by shying away from the questions they must ask to move their businesses forward.
Blog text (2) -
She realized she had been playing small and decided to pursue her dreams more boldly.
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For years, he had been playing small, but now he is ready to take on bigger challenges.
Synonyms
Act modestly by saying little about your talents
Antonyms
How Ambitious
18
4.8
5
3.9
1
7.7
42
3.4
187
3.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense is a metaphorical extension of the constituents: 'play' here means 'behave/act' and 'small' means 'limited or modest', so a learner who knows both words can plausibly infer 'act with limited ambition'. However, the collocational and evaluative nuance (limiting one's potential) is not fully predictable from the parts and relies on an abstract metaphorical mapping, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Play small may come from actors who play only small parts on stage, staying out of the spotlight and not showing their talent. So, it now means 'to behave with less ambition or confidence than you could'.