play up | Idiomator

Meaning: Used other than figuratively or idiomatically:seeplay,‎up.Our school team isplaying upat the old recreation ground.; (British,idiomatic)Tomisbehave.Synonym:act upChildren who do not receive enough attention may begin toplay up.The radar system isplaying upagain.; (transitive)To make or attempt to make something appear more important, likely, or obvious; toshowcaseorhighlight.Antonym:play downFor the audition, Nicole willplay upher skill as a pianist by playingJesu, Joy of Man's Desiringby Bach.; (intransitive)To play (e.g. sport or music) more vigorously.I can't hear the ukuleles at the back.Play upplease!1892,Henry Newbolt,Vitaï Lampada:And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote —'Play up! play up!and play the game!'; (transitive,slang)To be unfaithful to a lover; tocheat; used withon.1997, Melissa Lucashenko,Steam Pigs, page176:[…]the young fulla Jack'd brought along looked like he might suit in an emergency, and what the fuck, Jack'd already said she weren't interested. Serve Rog right if sheplayed upon him.2013, Ross W. Nielsen,The South American Coffee Shop Chronicles, page123:'Would you everplay upon me given the chance?' asked Stacy.'Never, why?' asked William.[…]'Oh! Just when I was younger, I had a few guys take me out and when I didn't put out in the first week, it was the last I would see of them,' explained Stacy.

Examples:

EN: It gave me a terrible shock but of course I knew I had to play up to it.
ES: Fue un shock terrible pero, por supuesto, sabía que tenía que estar a la altura.
EN: Trust me and play up'
ES: confíe en mí y haga su papel.'
EN: All right play up.
ES: Está bien, toca.
EN: play up to her and see what you can find out.
ES: Síguele el juego a ver qué puedes averiguar.
EN: well you see Miss Margaret, its like this, he had to play up to that gal ...so he can get in with the gang.
ES: Así, si el hombre moría, no les podían probar nada. Ya sabía que había algo extraño en todo esto... pero ¿porqué no se me habrá ocurrido a mí?
EN: Come on, play up!
ES: ¡Vamos! ¡Música!
EN: Now play up to him, Claire.
ES: Aprovéchate de él, Claire.
EN: Well, that'll give her a chance to pout, and play up her pretty lips.
ES: Así podrá fruncir y destacar sus labios bonitos.
EN: - No. Well, maybe I don't know the tripe they play up on Snob Hill, but I know what they like down here and that's more than you'll ever know.
ES: No sabré de la basura que tocan en Nob Hill, pero sé lo que gusta aquí.
EN: He thought you were a night club singer pretending to be somebody important, so he decided to play up to it.
ES: Creyó que eras una cantante de cabaré fingiendo ser alguien importante... así que decidió seguirte el juego.
EN: You play up to her.
ES: Debes halagarla.
EN: All you got to do is play up to him a little.
ES: Sólo tienes que seducirlo un poco.
EN: When he comes back, we'll have to play up to him. Get him to take the drink.
ES: - Cuando regrese... tendrás que seguirle el juego, hacer que se lo beba.
EN: Let's play up these Imperials!
ES: ¡Hagámosles morder el polvo a esos Imperiales!
EN: Come on, play up.
ES: Camaradas, no os quedéis parados.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).