<B>play-acting</B> or <B>playacting, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the acting of plays; dramatic performance. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) the action of making believe; pretending. </DL>
<A NAME="playactionpass">
<B>play-action pass,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Football.) a play in which the quarterback passes the ball after faking a running play. <BR> <I>Ex. They ... caught Green Bay's own defenders napping with play-action passes that looked at first glance like handoffs into the line (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="playactor">
<B>playactor, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an actor of plays; dramatic performer. </DL>
<A NAME="playback">
<B>playback, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the replaying of a sound recording, especially a tape recording, or of a videotape, especially just after it has been made. </DL>
<A NAME="playbackhead">
<B>playback head,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a magnetic head for playing back tape recordings. </DL>
<A NAME="playbill">
<B>playbill, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a handbill or placard announcing a play. <DD><B> 2. </B>a program of a play. </DL>
<A NAME="playbook">
<B>playbook, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a book containing the diagrams of a football team's plays. </DL>
<A NAME="playboy">
<B>playboy, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(Informal.) a man, usually wealthy, whose chief interest is having a good time. <BR> <I>Ex. This takes me back to the Algonquin where over cocktails I met two playboys from Dallas, Texas (Punch).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Irish.) a man who seeks to play a role to his own advantage; clever or tricky pretender. <BR> <I>Ex. The Playboy of the Western World (J. M. Synge).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="playbyplay">
<B>play-by-play, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) denoting a running commentary, especially on a sports event. </DL>
<A NAME="playclothes">
<B>playclothes, </B>noun pl.<DL COMPACT><DD> comfortable clothes worn for play or recreation. </DL>
<A NAME="playday">
<B>playday, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a day given to pastime or diversion; holiday. </DL>
<A NAME="playdoctor">
<B>play doctor,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S.) a writer employed to revise a playscript prior to production. </DL>
<A NAME="playdown">
<B>playdown, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (in Canada) a play-off. </DL>
<A NAME="playedout">
<B>played-out, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> suffering from overuse so as to be worn-out, worthless, or hackneyed. <BR> <I>Ex. played-out jokes.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="player">
<B>player, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person who plays, or is qualified to play, in some game. <BR> <I>Ex. a baseball player, a card player, a tennis player.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>an actor in a theater. <BR> <I>Ex. All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players (Shakespeare).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>a musician. <DD><B> 4. </B>a person who plays for stakes; gambler. <DD><B> 5. </B>a thing or device that plays. <BR> <I>Ex. A phonograph is a record player.</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>a mechanical device enabling a musical instrument, especially a piano, to be played automatically. <DD><B> 7. </B>a person who plays rather than works; idler. <DD><B> 8. </B>(U.S.) a person or group that plays an important part in any activity involving several parties. <BR> <I>Ex. A major player in the year's merger activity was Texas Air Corporation (Roger E. Bilstein).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="playerpiano">
<B>player piano,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a piano played by machinery consisting of foot pedals that pump a pneumatic mechanism turning a paper roll with perforations which cause air pressure to move the keys. </DL>
<A NAME="playfellow">
<B>playfellow, </B>noun. <B>=playmate.</B></DL>
<A NAME="playfield">
<B>play field,</B> <B>=playing field.</B></DL>
<A NAME="playful">
<B>playful, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>full of fun; fond of playing; frolicsome. <BR> <I>Ex. a playful puppy. The playful children just let loose from school (Oliver Goldsmith).</I> (SYN) sportive. <DD><B> 2. </B>not serious; joking. <BR> <I>Ex. a playful remark.</I> (SYN) bantering, jesting, humorous, jocular. adv. <B>playfully.</B> noun <B>playfulness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="playgirl">
<B>playgirl, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Informal.) a woman or girl, usually wealthy, whose chief interest is having a good time. </DL>
<A NAME="playgoer">
<B>playgoer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who goes often to the theater. </DL>
<A NAME="playgoing">
<B>playgoing, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> going often to the theater. <DD><I>noun </I> the practice or habit of going often to the theater. </DL>
<A NAME="playground">
<B>playground, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a place for outdoor play, especially by children, often containing equipment for games and sports. <DD><B> 2. </B>a recreation or resort area. <BR> <I>Ex. Over the past decade fashionable ... playgrounds such as Bermuda and Monte Carlo have been challenged (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="playgroup">
<B>playgroup, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an informal nursery school, held usually in some neighborhood facility. <BR> <I>Ex. Mothers find difficulty in getting baby-sitters, but the playgroups in church premises and the adventure playgrounds are welcomed (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="playhouse">
<B>playhouse, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a small house for a child to play in. <DD><B> 2. </B>a small building separate from a main building, for the recreation of people of any age. <DD><B> 3. </B>a small house for a child to play in. <DD><B> 4. </B>a theater. </DL>
<A NAME="playingcard">
<B>playing card,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a card used to play such games as poker, bridge, euchre, rummy, and pinochle, usually being one of a set of 52 cards arranged in four suits (spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs) of 13 cards each. </DL>
<A NAME="playingfield">
<B>playing field,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a field or piece of ground for games or a game. <BR> <I>Ex. It is being performed each night by floodlight on the playing fields beside the Avon (London Times).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(U.S.) an area marked off as comprising that within which the play of a particular game may, according to the rules, take place; field of play. </DL>
<B>playlet, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a short dramatic play. </DL>
<A NAME="playlist">
<B>playlist, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a catalog of recordings in the library of a radio station. </DL>
<A NAME="playmaker">
<B>playmaker, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>an offensive player, as in basketball, who sets up plays in which his teammates can score. <BR> <I>Ex. Cousy, having become the Celtics' acknowledged playmaker, began to direct their attack with a confidence that ... bordered on audacity (New Yorker).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B><B>=playwright.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="playmaking">
<B>playmaking, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the action or practice of an offensive player, as in basketball. <DD><B> 2. </B><B>=playwriting.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="playmate">
<B>playmate, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who plays regularly with another. (SYN) playfellow. </DL>
<A NAME="playoff">
<B>play-off, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a game or series of games played after the regular season to decide a championship. <DD><B> 2. </B>an extra game or round played off to settle a tie. </DL>
<B>playpen, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a small, folding pen for a baby or young child to play in. It is usually an enclosure with sides of wooden bars or netting. </DL>
<A NAME="playpit">
<B>playpit, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (British.) a small pit, sometimes filled with sand, for children to play in. <BR> <I>Ex. The village shopping centres have good stores as well as sculpture and playpits for the children (Manchester Guardian Weekly).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="playroom">
<B>playroom, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a room to play in, especially for children. </DL>
<A NAME="playscript">
<B>playscript, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the script of a play. <BR> <I>Ex. He's merely learning a part. There's the playscript in his hand (New Yorker).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="playsome">
<B>playsome, </B>adjective. <B>=playful.</B></DL>
<A NAME="playstreet">
<B>play street,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a street temporarily or permanently closed to traffic to enable children to play outdoors safely. </DL>
<A NAME="playsuit">
<B>play suit,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a matching outfit, usually consisting of shorts, a blouse and sometimes a skirt or jacket for women and girls. It is worn at the beach, on picnics, for tennis, or other leisure activity. <DD><B> 2. </B>playclothes for children. </DL>
<A NAME="playtherapy">
<B>play therapy,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> the therapeutic use of play, in the presence of a therapist, as a means of reducing a child's tensions and of promoting the child's emotional growth and health. </DL>
<A NAME="plaything">
<B>plaything, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a thing to play with; toy. <BR> <I>Ex. Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight (Alexander Pope).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) something or someone treated as a thing to play with. <BR> <I>Ex. She is not a tragic heroine but merely a love-smitten plaything who quickly gets over her infatuation (Winthrop Sargeant).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="playtime">
<B>playtime, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> time for play or recreation. </DL>
<B>playwright, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a writer of plays; dramatist. </DL>
<A NAME="playwriting">
<B>playwriting, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the writing of plays; occupation of a playwright. </DL>
<A NAME="plaza">
<B>plaza, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a public square in a city or town. <DD><B> 2. </B>(U.S.) <DD><B> a. </B>the wide area on a tollway where tollbooths are situated. <BR> <I>Ex. a toll plaza.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>an area with a restaurant, filling stations, and other services alongside an expressway. <BR> <I>Ex. a service plaza.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>(Especially Canadian.) a shopping center. </DL>
<A NAME="plazadetoros">
<B>plaza de toros,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Spanish.) a bull ring. </DL>
<A NAME="plc">
<B>PLC</B> (no periods),<DL COMPACT><DD> (British.) Public Limited Company. </DL>
