MEANING
To behave in a way that creates a serious risk of harm or trouble.
Use it for
warning about dangerous behavior; showing someone underestimating consequences; describing avoidable risk; portraying repeated actions that may lead to troubleWarns that conduct invites serious trouble even before harm occurs. Writing functions: Dangerous conduct.
Words that belong together
- be playing with fire
- warn someone they are playing with fire
On the page
Publishing accusations without checking the evidence is playing with fire.
She knew she was playing with fire when she kept meeting the rival bidder in secret.
Word forms
- Base
- play with fire
Usage notes
Verbal idiom: play/plays/played/playing with fire. No article before fire. Register: neutral. Commonness: common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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