to play tricks
15
3.0
- phrasal verb
:
hacerle una broma a
- Tommy, Halloween night, it's when people play tricks on each other.
So it just goes to show that scale can play tricks on us in other ways.
- So it just goes to show that scale can play tricks on us in other ways.
- I thought it was funny and I like that they played tricks on the dads.
- And, you know, we did joke with each other a lot and we did play tricks on each other, you know, good, good-natured humor.
- I also had this other thing that happened where, you know, sometimes you can't, your memory might be playing tricks on you.
- We, our, our mind plays tricks on us to make our life easier, more efficient and survive better and all those kinds of things.
- I'm just saying that I've never seen anything that would suggest that there is stuff actually happening that can't just be explained by people's mind playing tricks on it.
Examples
-
Looks like Eli has friends who also like to play tricks.
Academic text (2016) -
I don't like people playing tricks on me, especially not my own grandson.
-
Does everyone think they can go on playing tricks on me?
-
"Stop playing tricks on everyone and everything," they said.
Fiction book (2002) -
And, you know, we did joke with each other a lot and we did play tricks on each other, you know, good, good-natured humor.
-
Timmy liked to play tricks on Deej, but even he was happy when the tricks didn't work.
Fiction book (1994) -
In the 19th century, their shenanigans consisted mainly of harmless pranks such as playing tricks on their neighbors.
Blog text (9) -
The children decided to play tricks on their friends during the party for some fun.
-
Every Halloween, we love to play tricks on each other with silly pranks.
-
He always likes to play tricks on his little sister to make her laugh.
Synonyms
326
3.5
To make someone believe something false so you can get what you want
19
7.2
To trick someone, often as a joke
16
2.9
To play a trick on someone to make people laugh
11
8.3
To trick someone by pretending you want to help them
7
7.4
Treat someone as stupid to trick or cheat them
6
2.8
To fool someone as a joke
5
3.2
To trick someone in a friendly way to make them laugh
5
8.1
To trick someone to gain an advantage
4
3.1
Do small tricks to surprise or make someone laugh
3
8.8
To trick someone so they cannot succeed
3
6.0
Pretend to be a person or website online to trick people
2
4.5
To trick people into believing something false
1
8.1
To trick someone by being clever to gain advantage
1
8.7
To make a playful joke or trick someone to make them laugh
1
4.1
To tell someone something that is not true to make them laugh
To trick someone as a joke
To trick someone so they look silly
Antonyms
How Mischievous
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to trick or deceive someone playfully' is directly derivable from combining 'play' (to engage in amusing activity) with 'tricks' (mischievous pranks); the verb phrase literally means to perform pranks. This compositional pattern (play + activity) is common and cross-linguistically familiar, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Play tricks comes from the image of someone using play like a game to do small tricks or pranks that surprise or fool another person. That's why it means 'to trick or deceive someone as a joke'.