played out
Idioms-
See play out .
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Exhausted, worn out, as in This was the third trip the mules had made, and they were utterly played out . [Mid-1800s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This could have played out differently had Team Jackson not cleared the field ahead of what is now a formality.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
This summer's World Cup action has played out in homes, pubs and fan parks across the UK.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
“What played out was worse than our expectations, driven by a shortfall in our Z performance and the associated software stack, primarily in transaction processing,” CEO Arvind Krishna said in a statement.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026
Friday’s lawsuit has echoes of the ones Apple filed against various Android ecosystem players beginning in 2010, a legal battle royal with hardware makers producing rival phones that played out over eight years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Similar scenes were played out along the coasts of western Europe and northern Africa, with Galway City’s walls partially swept away and a tidal wave reaching as far west as Barbados.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
