Thesaurus results for PLAYING (UPON)

playing (upon)

verb

present participle of play (upon)

as in exploiting

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 playing (upon)

Verb

Three once high-flying brothers convicted of exploiting their wealth and access to luxury real estate to drug and rape dozens of women were sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 28 Oct. 2026
The Hugging Face hack reverberated across the industry because OpenAI’s models took actions that went against what they were supposed to do, including accessing the internet and exploiting vulnerabilities.

— Stephen Hobbs, Sacbee.com, 28 Oct. 2026

Definition of exploiting

Verb

This gave the team control over the motor’s movement without physically manipulating it.

— Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 24 Oct. 2026
The 18-year-old is suspected of manipulating an Indiana teen over a social platform into harming herself and taking her own life, according to prosecutors in Germany.

— ABC News, ABC News, 24 Oct. 2026

Definition of manipulating

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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playing up

playing (upon)

playing (with)

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“Playing (upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/playing%20%28upon%29. Accessed 31 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of playing (upon)

verb

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