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hat which turns or draws the mind from care or study, and thus relaxes and amuses; sport; play; pastime; as, the diversions of youth. "Public diversions." V. Knox. Such productions of wit and humor as expose vice and folly, furnish useful diversion to readers. Addison.

A short ballet, or other entertainment, between the acts of a play. Smart.

To play or sing in a florid style, or with variations. [Obs.] Spenser.

A game played with it. [Written also jereed, jerrid, etc.]

A game much like hockey, played in an open field; also, the, bent stick for playing the game. [Local, Eng.] Halliwell.

To evade a duty by low craft; to practice mean shifts; to use tricky devices; to play fast and loose; to quibble. Some dodging casuist with more craft than sincerity. Milton.

One who dodges or evades; one who plays fast and loose, or uses tricky devices. Smart.

To rule with insolence or arbitrary sway; to play the master; to be overbearing; to tyrannize; to bluster; to swell with conscious superiority or haughtiness; -- often with over; as, to domineer over dependents. Go to the feast, revel and domineer. Shak. His wishes tend abroad to roam, And hers to domineer at home. Pri…

A game played by two or more persons, with twenty-eight pieces of wood, bone, or ivory, of a flat, oblong shape, plain at the back, but on the face divided by a line in the middle, and either left blank or variously dotted after the manner of dice. The game is played by matching the spots or the blank of an unmatched h…

A game of cards in which the suits are played in sequence, beginning with a 5 or 9, the player who gets rid of his cards first being the winner.

Up, or ahead, as many holes as remain to be played; -- said of a player or side.

imitate the movements of the fowler. In catching of dotterels we see how the foolish bird playeth the ape in gestures. Bacon.

notes, in diatonic progression; a fifteenth. -- Double pica. See under Pica. -- Double play (Baseball), a play by which two players are put out at the same time. -- Double plea (Law), a plea alleging several matters in answer to the declaration, where either of such matters alone would be a sufficient bar to the ac…

A peculiar action of the tongue by flute players in articulating staccato notes; also, the rapid repetition of notes in cornet playing.

e of. [Obs.] Edmond [was a] good man and doubted God. R. of Gloucester. I doubt some foul play. Shak. That I of doubted danger had no fear. Spenser.

nternal earthquakes, that, not content with one throe, run along spasmodically, like boys playing at what is called drakestone. De Quincey.

The actors in a drama or play.

The author of a dramatic composition; a writer of plays.

A checkered board on which draughts are played. See Checkerboard.

An old game, played by holding up the fingers. Herrick.