play out

See also: playout

English

Verb

play out (third-person singular simple present plays out, present participle playing out, simple past and past participle played out)

(transitive) To play (a game etc.) to its conclusion.
- 2011 February 12, Nabil Hassan, “Blackburn 0 - 0 Newcastle”, in BBC‎^[1]:
  Newcastle and Blackburn played out a goalless draw in a game that the Magpies dominated at Ewood Park.
(transitive) To play music to accompany the end of, or as a final segment in (a programme, broadcast etc.).
And now, to play us out, please welcome Tom Waits.
(intransitive) To occur or develop in a certain manner.
Let's keep our heads down for a little while and see how things play out.

My date played out a little differently than I imagined.
- 2019 May 12, Alex McLevy, “Westeros faces a disastrous final battle on the penultimate Game of Thrones (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club‎^[2], archived from the original on 15 May 2019:
  The Mountain versus the Hound played out entertainingly, with the elder Clegane still outmatching his younger brother pound for pound and blow for blow. Being turned into a walking zombie of sorts didn’t just amplify his strength; it essentially obviated the need to parry blows, as even Sandor sinking his sword deep into his undead brother didn’t seem to slow him down in the slightest.
- 2026 April 22, Jillian Sanders, “The Danger of Surrendering Your Financial Independence in a Relationship”, in TIME‎^[3], archived from the original on 22 April 2026:
  And often, the person managing the money isn’t always managing it well. We’ve seen this play out publicly in fraud cases, in bankruptcies, in marriages that appear stable until the numbers are exposed.
- 2026 June 19, Gooseworx, “Remember” (4:33 from the start), in The Amazing Digital Circus‎^[4], episode 9, spoken by Kinger (Sean Chiplock):
  No! None of this is your fault. I don't think anyone could have predicted things to play out the way they did.
(transitive, perhaps influenced by or confused with 'pay out') To feed (rope, cord, etc.) so as to allow more length or slackness.
I sat at the top of the cliff and played out the rope as she descended.
(sports, intransitive, transitive, Europe) To compete in a play-out; to compete against (an opponent) in a play-out.

Derived terms

play out the string

Translations

intransitive: to occur or develop in a certain manner

Italian: svolgere (it)
Spanish: discurrir (es)

References

“play out”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

outplay