play for laughs
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Could the “Till Eulenspiegel” play for laughs a touch more?
From New York Times • Jun. 30, 2022
It can play for laughs — a high school, pre-mustache Minshew chomping on peanut butter while watching his pals play baseball.
From Washington Post • Oct. 3, 2019
We see her taking the bus home one afternoon, and then falling afoul of a freak accident, which Soderbergh has the nerve to play for laughs.
From The New Yorker • Sep. 20, 2019
Kurt Russell plays U.S. coach Herb Brooks in one of the few sports movies that doesn't play for laughs.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 9, 2018
Mr Shaw did really mean it quite seriously, for he has written a letter to say so, and we must not play for laughs any more.”
From The Trembling of the Veil by Yeats, W. B. (William Butler)
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.
