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
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for playing (upon)
Verb
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By the time Cale Makar picked up the puck on the offensive line, exploiting Taylor Ward in a mismatched one-on-one before sniping short side past Anton Forsberg, the impending sweep was clear.—
Peter Baugh,
New York Times,
26 Apr. 2026 -
Bad actors are exploiting weaknesses government has known about for years.—
Darlene Mealy,
New York Daily News,
25 Apr. 2026
Verb
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This can involve pretending to be an IT customer support and manipulating an employee at a target company into handing over internal access.—
Michael Kan,
PC Magazine,
24 Apr. 2026
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But even then, our team of artists got in there and just started manipulating things.—
Damon Wise,
Deadline,
20 Apr. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Playing (upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/playing%20%28upon%29. Accessed 1 May. 2026.
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