to play God
34
8.5
- idiom
- Informal
:
jugar a ser Dios
- The scientist was warned not to play God with genetic engineering and to consider the risks involved.
- playing God can lead
Well, yes, I I mean, the playing God doesn't doesn't bother me at all.
- Well, yes, I I mean, the playing God doesn't doesn't bother me at all.
- And so we, we start trying to play God instead of play with God.
- Like, yeah, it just plays God that way.
- But in chess if you cheat you play God.
- And they think that they can play God and hack the cycle of life and remove themselves from life requires life, you know, and that we all die.
- I've got photocopies to which he's playing God in Albany jail.
- Hell is the creature wanting to play God and it's dominate or be dominated.
- But the more foundational problem that I have is really this idea of, of playing God.
- Then we had a machine or two queued up to Thunder collapse so we could play God.
- So this, you know, playing God, you could say, leads to being transformed back into mere material on the part of the sorcerer.
Examples
-
You know that history isn't kind to those who play God.
-
Do you think that science is playing God, or do you think that's actually where we need to get to as a species?
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And so we, we start trying to play God instead of play with God.
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Making life or death decisions, playing God ...
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What makes you think you can play God?
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Yes, you are trying to play God, and it just will not work that way.
Blog text (17) -
But every now and then, the ability to play God could not be denied.
Fiction book (1991) -
I am not going to play God with someone else's lives and the lives of others.
Blog text (28) -
Too many politicians want to play God and get in everybody's business to "fix" things.
Blog text (6) -
That Reinhardt sure loves to play God, doesn't he?
Antonyms
How Controlling
- Informal
34
8.5
181
5.0
98
3.5
197
5.0
487
3.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
A learner who knows 'play' in the sense 'to pretend or take on a role' and 'God' as a supreme being can plausibly infer the basic idea 'act like God' from the parts. However, the idiomatic nuance—that this behaviour is presumptuous or morally questionable, and the specific contexts where the phrase is used—go beyond simple composition, so full meaning may not be predictable for a B1 learner.
Etymology
Play God paints the image of a person playing with small dolls and acting like a God who controls their lives. So it means 'to act as if you have the power to decide people's lives or future', often in a way others see as wrong.