As Cannace was playing in her walk. Chaucer.

The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play! Pope.

And some, the darlings of their Lord,
Play smiling with the flame and sword. Keble.

"Nay," quod this monk, "I have no lust to pleye." Chaucer.

Men are apt to play with their healths. Sir W. Temple.

One that . . . can play well on an instrument. Ezek. xxxiii. 32.

Play, my friend, and charm the charmer. Granville.

His mother played false with a smith. Shak.

The heart beats, the blood circulates, the lungs play. Cheyne.

Even as the waving sedges play with wind. Shak.

The setting sun
Plays on their shining arms and burnished helmets. Addison.

All fame is foreign but of true desert,
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart. Pope.

A lord will hear your play to- night. Shak.

Courts are theaters where some men play. Donne.

To play into a person's hands, to act, or to manage matters, to his advantage or benefit. -- To play off, to affect; to feign; to practice artifice. -- To play upon. (a) To make sport of; to deceive.

Art thou alive?
Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight. Shak.

(b) To use in a droll manner; to give a droll expression or application to; as, to play upon words.

First Peace and Silence all disputes control,
Then Order plays the soul. Herbert.

Nature here
Wantoned as in her prime, and played at will
Her virgin fancies. Milton.

Thou canst play the rational if thou wilt. Sir W. Scott.

To play off, to display; to show; to put in exercise; as, to play off tricks. -- To play one's cards, to manage one's means or opportunities; to contrive. -- Played out, tired out; exhausted; at the end of one's resources. [Colloq.]

John naturally loved rough play. Arbuthnot.

A play ought to be a just image of human nature. Dryden.

The joints are let exactly into one another, that they have no play between them. Moxon.

Play actor, an actor of dramas. Prynne. -- Play debt, a gambling debt. Arbuthnot. -- Play pleasure, idle amusement. [Obs.] Bacon. -- A play upon words, the use of a word in such a way as to be capable of double meaning; punning. -- Play of colors, prismatic variation of colors. -- To bring into play, To come into play, to bring or come into use or exercise. -- To hold in play, to keep occupied or employed.

I, with two more to help me,
Will hold the foe in play. Macaulay.