Thesaurus results for PLAYED (UPON)

played (upon)

verb

past tense of play (upon)

as in exploited

to control or take advantage of by artful, unfair, or insidious means played upon the customer's vanity to convince her to buy the expensive makeup kit

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Recent Examples of Synonyms for played (upon)

Verb

This notorious commercial entity, a precursor of the global corporations of today and big enough to command its own army, ruthlessly exploited foreign resources, human and material.

— Rebecca Mead, New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2026
That signal can be aggregated, correlated, and exploited by hostile foreign intelligence services to anticipate our movements, targets, and timing.

— Jon Brodkin, ArsTechnica, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of exploited

Verb

But the things that tend to be more manageable are interiors, like a child's bedroom, but even those have so many details that have to be thought of and designed and built and manipulated.

— Kat Chen, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 Oct. 2026
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday the Pentagon has not manipulated the service.

— Jennifer Jacobs, CBS News, 21 Oct. 2026

Definition of manipulated

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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played up

played (upon)

played (with)

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“Played (upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/played%20%28upon%29. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of played (upon)

verb

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