Emily Dickinson Lexicon

play, n. [OE pleˋa.] (webplay: arms, bleed, child, dance, dark, day, degrees, dramatic, eyesight, fair play, fire, fool, gambols, heard, heart, house, intended, just, leap, lie, lives, lord, love, maker, man, merriment, move, music, people, room, scenes, series, setting sun, show, sport, sun, task, trick, turn, work).

1. Recreation; amusement; frolic; diversion.
2. Game; sport.
3. Rest; leisure; idleness; holiday; repose from labor.
4. Joke; jest; prank; fun; mischief; roguery; impishness; merriment derived from toying with another.
5. Drama; show; theatrical performance.
6. Behavior; conduct; set of actions; situation.
7. Movement; dance; choreography; flickering; twinkling; flitting; variable motion; [fig.] rays; beams of light.
8. Phrase. “At play”: engaged in sport; enjoying leisure; involved in merriment.

play (-ed, -eth, -ing -s), v. [OE pleˋan.] (webplay: bend, bleed, blind, book, character, child, composition, day, degrees, desert, display, distinctly, diversion, dooms, dramatic, drink, eyesight, fair play, fame, fire, flute, fool, foreign, free play, friend, gambols, gentle, head, heard, heart, house, justifies, leap, liberty, lie, lives, lord, maker, man, merriment, move, music, Nature, people, practice, question, room, rose, sat, setting sun, shining, skip, standing, sun, tragedy, true, wheel, wind, work).

1. Romp; frolic; gambol; cavort.
2. Engage in a game of.
3. Rest; relax; enjoy leisure; take a break from labor.
4. Pretend; imagine; dream; make believe.
5. Dance; sway; move rhythmically.
6. Flicker; flash.
7. Perform on a musical instrument.
8. Repeat; sound; be heard.
9. [Fig.] exist; be located.
10. Phrase. “Play at”: imagine; pretend; engage in a game of; participate in a fanciful activity of.
11. Phrase. “Play with”: rustle; agitate; stir up.

player (-s), n. [OE pleˋre < pleˋan, to play.] (webplay: degrees, full play, heard, music, Nature, wind).

Musician; pianist; performer on a musical instrument.

playfellow, adj.

[see play, n. + late OE féolaˋa < ON félage < fé, property, money.) Companion; accompanying; associated; attached; affiliated.

playful, adj. [see play, n.]

Cheerful; docile; jubilant; joyful; positive; happy.

playing, n. [see play, v.] (webplay: bleed, eyesight, man).

Make believe; pretending; imagining; game.

playmate (-s), n. [see play, n. + fellow, n.] (webplay: book, child, courts, distinctly, dooms, full play, house, king, leap, lie, man, room, task).

Friend; comrade; playfellow; schoolmate; childhood companion; co-participant in amusement.

plaything (-s), n. [see play, n. + OE þing.] (webplay: child, day, heard, lives, man, rose, woman, work).

1. Toy; trinket; object designed for amusement.
2. [Fig.] trifle; frivolous object; trivial thing; unimportant item.

plea, n. [ME plaid < OFr < L. placit-um, decision, decree, that which pleases or is agreed upon.] (webplay: live, love).

1. Appeal; request; entreaty; supplication.
2. Explanation; excuse; justification.
3. Claim; right; prayer; [fig.] hope; chance; felicitous prospect; high expectation.

plead, (-ed, -ing, -s), v. [ME plaiden < OFr plaid-ier, go to law, sue, plead.] (webplay: bargain, entreaty, excuse, life, proof, right).

1. Entreat; supplicate; beg; implore.
2. Argue; claim insistently; assert stubbornly; give as an excuse; state as justification.
3. [Fig.] wail; lament; cry; whine; moan; sing plaintively.
4. [Fig.] worship; kneel in prayer; bow in reverence.