to play with oneself
- phrasal verb
- Offensive
- He often chooses to play with himself when he feels lonely at home.
Examples
-
Have you tried playing with yourself? You mean Bill?
Fiction book (1998) -
When no one else is around, some people might play with themselves for pleasure.
-
And from now on, stop playing with yourself!
-
Well, go ahead and play with yourself.
-
Quit playing with yourself back there.
Fiction book (1990) -
"And you can play with yourself," she added, as he reached for his exposed penis.
Fiction book (1990) -
He plays with himself in the tub.
Fiction book (1992) -
You playing with yourself?
-
- There's masturbation, - Masturbation, play with yourself.
-
You're playin' with yourself.
Synonyms
107
7.7
Touch your own private parts for sexual pleasure
7
9.9
To touch your own private parts to get sexual pleasure
1
9.8
To touch your own sexual parts to feel pleasure
1
9.8
To touch your own private parts for sexual pleasure
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'play' + 'with' + 'oneself' literally indicate a self-directed playful action, so a learner could infer that it involves interacting with one's own body. However, the specific sense 'to masturbate' is a euphemistic, pragmatic extension (sexual meaning) that is not strictly predictable from the literal words and depends on social/idiomatic knowledge, making it only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Play with oneself comes from the simple image of someone doing play alone and touching their own body (oneself) in private for pleasure. So it means 'to masturbate'.