as in to exploit
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
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for play (upon)
Verb
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Sheeraz is also adept at timing; if his foe offers a slight opening, Sheeraz can exploit it and land a powerful strike.—
Trent Reinsmith,
Forbes.com,
10 July 2025 -
His bat speed hasn’t slowed, but there will always be ways to exploit even the greatest hitters.—
Matt Gelb,
New York Times,
10 July 2025
Verb
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Even a congressional candidate has alleged that humans manipulated the weather behind the Fourth of July weekend floods in Texas, which left at least 120 people dead and more than 170 still missing.—
Brandi D. Addison,
Austin American Statesman,
12 July 2025
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Attackers can exploit this vulnerability to run malicious code or access other parts of your system by manipulating memory.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
11 July 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Play (upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/play%20%28upon%29. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.
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