play sb/sth off against sb/sth
— phrasal verb with play /pleɪ/ verbDefinition
› to encourage one person or group to compete or argue with another, hoping to get some advantage from this situation: Management policy seemed to be to play one department off against another.Competing and contending (non-sporting)Competing in sport
(Definition of play sb/sth off against sb/sth from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus
© Cambridge University Press)
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You are looking at an entry to do with Competing and contending (non-sporting), but you might be interested in these topics from the Doing and achieving topic area:
- Abstaining and refraining
- Acting and acts
- Avoiding action
- Becoming better
- Cancelling and interrupting
- Coping and not coping
- Delaying and wasting time
- Describing the leading position
- Efficient and effective
- Expressions telling people to hurry up
- Failing and doing badly
- Failures
- Getting involved for one's own benefit or against others' will
- Hesitating
- Higher and lower points of achievement
- Hurrying and doing things quickly
- Making progress and advancing
- Making things better
- Performing a function
- Potential
- Reacting and responding
- Repeating an action
- Succeeding, achieving and fulfilling
- Success and achievements
- Successful (things or people)
- Surpassing in quality or number
- Taking part and getting involved
- Trying and making an effort
- Unsuccessful (people and things)
- Waiting
- Ways of achieving things
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Synonyms and related words:
- bid noun (OFFER)
- challenge noun (INVITATION)
- competition noun
- competitive adjective
- contend verb (COMPETE)
- contender noun
- contest verb (ATTEMPT)
- contest verb (COMPETE)
- contestant noun (ATTEMPT)
- give sb a run for their money idiom
- go in for sth phrasal verb (COMPETE)
- jostle for sth phrasal verb
- play cat and mouse idiom
- rival verb
- rivalry noun
- run sb close idiom
- scramble verb (MOVE QUICKLY)
- showing noun (PERFORMANCE)
- take sb on phrasal verb (FIGHT)
- try out for sth phrasal verb
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