to play the fox
- idiom
:
ser astuto
- They tried to play the fox during negotiations, but were eventually caught.
Examples
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He often plays the fox in business to outmaneuver his rivals.
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She knew when to play the fox to get what she wanted.
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Don't play the fox with me!
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Tom plays the fox whenever he wants something.
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He often plays the fox in business to outsmart his competitors.
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She learned how to play the fox to gain an advantage over her opponents.
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During the game, they decided to play the fox to trick their rivals.
Synonyms
14
7.4
To use secret or unfair actions to gain power at work
1
8.1
To trick someone who trusts you by hiding your real plans to get something for yourself
1
7.7
Use clever or dishonest moves to get an advantage
Act in a smart, careful way to gain an advantage
How Cunning
14
6.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to behave in a cunning or deceitful manner' is directly derivable from combining 'play' (to act/pretend) with 'fox' (conventional animal metaphor for shrewdness/cunning); the definite article 'the' is semantically inert here. Because the composition follows a straightforward agent-role metaphor that is cross-linguistically common, a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would very likely infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Play the fox may come from old fables where the fox is clever and tricks other animals. Because 'play' here means 'act like', the phrase came to mean 'to behave in a cunning or deceitful way'.