Collocation dictionary (ARCS)

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ARCS

HEADWORD: play (about/ against/ along with/ amongst/ as/ around/ around with/ back/ between/ by/ down/ for/ in/ off/ on/ out/ over/ to/ up/ upon/ with) v.
NOUNS: accordion, ace, activity, actor, actress, adult(s), all fours, altruism, animal(s), antics, appeal, association football, attitudes, audience(s), aunt, author(s), authorities, baccarat, backgammon, badminton, ball, baseball, basketball, beach, beach ball, bells, best card, billiards, bits of string, blackjack, blindman´s buff, blind poker, bottle, boss, bowling, bowls, boy(s), bridge, brother, canasta, cards, case(s), casinos, cassettes, CD player, ceaseless games, character, charades, chess, child, children, chip, club, comedies, comedy, communal drama, commune, company, concept, conflict, conversion, copies, cornet, country, court tennis, cricket, cricket team, croquet, crucial role, curling, daughter, decisive role, Destiny, development, difficulties, dirty trick, doctors, dominant role, drama, draw poker, dualism, dutiful daughter, each other, ear, edict, engine, evolution, extra time, fact, famous people, fantasy, Fate, feature, feelings, female, female part/ role, film, financial difficulties, first team, fish, flames, flute, fool, football, force, Fortune, fountain, Frisbee, full-back, full house, fundamental role, game, game of cards, generous role, genes, ghost, girl(s), God, golf, golfer, government, grandchildren, grandparents, ground, group, Halma, handball, harp, hearts, hide-and-seek, high performance, hockey, hockey team, hose, host, human evolution, ice hockey, ideas, important part, innocent, intention, interpretation, Jew(s), joke, kids, king, King, lawn tennis, League match, liver cells, loss of hope, lottery, lotto, major role, male part/ role, marathon, marbles, match(es), meadows, medieval life, member(s), mine, moment, money, monitoring, Monopoly, MP3 player, music, musical instrument, mystery play, nice song, notable part, note, number, Old Testament, one’s arm/ bodies/ best player(s)/ food/ legs/ role/ team/ views, oneself, opponent, opponent’s forehand, overt role, paddle tennis, part, passengers, patience, pebbles, people, person, persuasion, philosophy, phone, piano, piccolo, Ping-Pong, pitch, player(s), poker, politics, positions, postmen, prescriptions, press, Prince, Princess, professional(s), promotion, prophecy, prominent life, public statements, pupils, Queen, radio, raids, record, recorder, record player, religion, revival, revolution, riots, Roman Law, roofs, rugby, rummy, satire, scene, Scrabble, searchlights, sees, sensational aspects, serious disturbances, Shakespeare, shells, shot, sick joke, side, similarities, sister, skat, skeet shooting, skittles, smile, soccer, social conditions, softball, s.o.´s charade/ fears/ good nature/ lips/ prejudices, soldiers, solitaire, son, spectators, spectator sport, sport, sprinkler, squash, stimulus consequence, stock-exchange, stock-market, straight poker, strategy, students, stud poker, suggestion, swing, table tennis, talent, tape, tape recording, teacher, television, tennis, theme, theory, theories, thought, times, Tit for Tat, tournaments, toys, trick, trombone, trustworthiness, tune, twenty one, unemployment, uncle, university, upheavals, violin, vital part/ role, volleyball, whist, wise old professor, women’s affections, word(s), writer(s), zero sum game;
ADJECTIVES/ADVERBS: actually, again, also, always, beautifully, continuously, cool, co-operate, dead, defect, dumb, fair, foul, hard, innocent, just, largely, loud, loudly, never, nervous, only, pretty well, probably, quickly, repeatedly, rough, simply, taintly, well;
EXAMPLES: always try to play up your assets and play down your liabilities; what are you playing at?; the concept of Fortune played a crucial role on later Hellenistic thought; play a nice song for me; play us a nice song; each strategy played against copies of itself; he played against a strong opponent; she played along with the system; belles played a prominent part in medieval life; she played for money; reciprocal altruism played an important part in human evolution; he played for our team; the bloody engine started playing up again; the English `national game´ was largely played at times when the English nation was otherwise engaged; Shakespeare played comedies and dramas; he played on the spectator’s fears and on words; he played to a full house; she played a trick on me; the boxer played to his opponent’s forehead; they all, being nice, simply played co-operate against each other; children like to play with matches; he played his last chip on number 3; let’s play I’m the doctor and you are the patient; I agreed to play along with Juliana´s charade; he’s playing with her till he gets what he’s after; she found out about his playing around and filed for divorce; she won’t play ball; I´ll just play it by ear; we both played defect; she played her first match at the age of 15; I´ll play you a game of cards; stop playing with your food; they played dead; she played him for a fool; he played in the first team in three positions; he played the tape back to us; the covenant was a communal drama played out between Yahweh and His people in time; the principal played one side off against the other; they also played soldiers; Kent played Surrey; all played their part amongst the heady mixture of religious and worldly motives; only 14 per cent played the game; Frank played Patrick at snooker; he played water-polo for the town and stole cars; she played up to the boss; many wild animals and plants are engaged in ceaseless games of Prisoner’s Dilemma, played out in evolutionary time;
SYNONYMS: enjoy oneself, amuse oneself, frolic, caper, have fun, have a good time, gambol, sport; take part (in), be occupied (in/with), engage in, contend in, undertake, participate; compete against/with, challenge, vie with, pit oneself against, take on, rival, contend with; act, take the part/ role of, depict, portray, perform; put on, perform (on/ upon); operate; gamble, bet, stake, place; go along with, play one’s part, be party to; manipulate, jolly along; tease, fool around; flirt, be unfaithful, dally, philander, womanize; pretend, make believe, simulate, affect; work together, work hand in glove, play along; improvize, extemporize; belittle, diminish, make light of, decry; delay, hesitate, temporize; use, misuse, trade on, exploit, take advantage of, impose on; conduct oneself, deport oneself; emphasize, underscore, underline, accentuate, highlight, dramatize, build up; misbehave, give trouble, malfunction; favour with, toady to, flatter, ingratiate oneself with; toy with, make light of, think nothing of, amuse oneself with; consider, think about, not treat seriously; mess with, fidget with, fiddle with;
GERMAN: spielen, herumspielen, vorspielen, tanzen, sich bespielen lassen, mitspielen, arrangieren (mit), abspielen, aussspielen, weiterspielen, darstellen, zu Ende spielen, ausbeuten, herumbringen, durchspielen, aufdrehen;

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