play fair

1. Behave honestly and honorably, obey the rules, as in Not every supplier we deal with plays fair, or We can't just leave them to find their own way back—that's not playing fair. Although this idiom conjures up playing by the rules in some game or sport, it actually has been used in this figurative way since the mid-1400s. Also see play the game.

Example Sentences

“We can’t sit on the sidelines anymore and just hope that the far right will play fair or play by the rule book,” said Von Wilpert, 42.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“But we’re dealing with a radical left group of lunatics, and they don’t play fair and they never did.”

Read more on Salon

Her father’s second-in-command, the handsome Jack Dean, insists family members play fair in obeying their father’s will.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The media doesn’t always play fair when it scents a scalp.

Read more on BBC

Until we have a national fix, or a Supreme Court less determined to help Republicans win, we are stuck with a nationally gerrymandered map of blue and red states, with little incentive for either party to play fair.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• manage