Unplay

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    Hypothetically, to undo the playing of. transitive

    "I feel like a traitor, but what's done is done. I can't unplay that note, even if it was a sour one."

  2. 2
    To interact with something in a way that subverts the conventions of playing. ambitransitive

    "Flanagan outlines three kinds of critical play enacted by Victorian girls with dolls: In doll play, unplaying manifests in children abusing their dolls, "killing" them, or some other revision of the "care giving" framework […]"

Example

More examples

"I feel like a traitor, but what's done is done. I can't unplay that note, even if it was a sour one."

Etymology

From un- + play.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.