different between play vs cast

English

Etymology

From Middle English pleyen, playen, ple?en, plæien, also Middle English pla?en, plawen (compare English plaw), from Old English ple?an, pleo?an, plæ?an, and Old English plegian, pleagian, plagian (“to play, exercise, etc.”), from Proto-West Germanic *plehan (“to care about, be concerned with”) and Proto-West Germanic *pleg?n (“to engage, move”); both perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *blek- (“to move, move about”), from Proto-Indo-European *bal- (compare Ancient Greek ???? (blú?), ????? (blúz?, “I gush out, spring”), Sanskrit ???????? (balbal?ti, “it whirls, twirls”)). Cognate with Scots play (“to act or move briskly, cause to move, stir”), Saterland Frisian pleegje (“to look after, care for, maintain”), West Frisian pleegje, pliigje (“to commit, perform, bedrive”), Middle Dutch pleyen ("to dance, leap for joy, rejoice, be glad"; compare Modern Dutch pleien (“to play a particular children's game”)), Dutch plegen (“to commit, bedrive, practice”), German pflegen (“to care for, be concerned with, attend to, tend”). Related also to Old English pl?on (“to risk, endanger”). More at plight, pledge.

The noun is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæ?, plega, plæ?a (“play, quick [ motion, movement, exercise; (athletic) sport, game; festivity, drama; battle; gear for games, an implement for a game; clapping with the hands, applause”), deverbative of plegian (“to play”); see above.

Pronunciation

• enPR: pl?, IPA^(key): /ple?/, [pl?e?]
• Rhymes: -e?

Verb

play (third-person singular simple present plays, present participle playing, simple past and past participle played)

1. (intransitive) To act in a manner such that one has fun; to engage in activities expressly for the purpose of recreation or entertainment.
   • 2003, Anne-Nelly Perret-Clermont et al. (eds.), Joining Society: Social Interaction and Learning in Adolescence and Youth, Cambridge Univ. Press, p.52:

     We had to play for an hour, so that meant that we didn't have time to play and joke around.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To perform in (a sport); to participate in (a game).

   Hypernym: try

   Hyponym: replay

   1. (transitive) To compete against, in a game.

      We're playing one of the top teams in the next round.
   2. (transitive) (in the scoring of games and sports) To be the opposing score to.

      Look at the score now ... 23 plays 8!

3. (intransitive) To take part in amorous activity; to make love.

   Synonyms: get it on, make out, have sex; see also Thesaurus:copulate
4. (transitive) To act as the indicated role, especially in a performance.
   • 1984, Chris Robinson, commercial for Vicks Formula 44:
5. (heading, transitive, intransitive) To produce music or theatre.
   1. (intransitive, of a music) To produce music.

      Synonyms: cook, jam; see also Thesaurus:play music

      • 2007, Dan Erlewine, Guitar Player Repair Guide ?ISBN, page 220:

        If your guitar plays well on fretted strings but annoys you on the open ones, the nut's probably worn out.

   2. (intransitive, especially of a person) To produce music using a musical instrument.

   3. (transitive, especially of a person) To produce music (or a specified song or musical style) using (a specified musical instrument).

   4. (transitive, ergative) To use a device to watch or listen to the indicated recording.

   5. (intransitive, of a theatrical performance) To be performed; (or of a film) to be shown.

   6. (transitive, of a theatrical company or band, etc.) To perform in or at; to give performances in or at.
      • 2008, My Life: From Normandy to Hockeytown ?ISBN, p.30:

        I got a hold of Louis (Satchmo) Armstrong's agent and I explained to him on the phone that, "I know you're playing London on Wednesday night. Why don't you come and play the Arena in Windsor on Saturday night?"

   7. (transitive) To act or perform (a play).

6. (heading) To behave in a particular way.
   1. (copulative) Contrary to fact, to give an appearance of being.
      • 1985, Sharon S. Brehm, Intimate Relationships:

        Playing hard to get is not the same as slamming the door in someone's face.

      • 1996, Michael P. Malone, James J Hill: Empire Builder of the Northwest:

        Now, surveying his final link, he had the nice advantage of being able to play coy with established port cities that desperately wanted his proven railroad.

      • 2003, John U. Ogbu, Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement, p.194:

        Instead, they played dumb, remained silent, and did their classwork.

   2. (intransitive) To act with levity or thoughtlessness; to trifle; to be careless.
   3. (intransitive) To act; to behave; to practice deception.
   4. (transitive) To bring into sportive or wanton action; to exhibit in action; to execute.
7. (transitive, intransitive) To move in any manner; especially, to move regularly with alternate or reciprocating motion; to operate.
   • 1705, George Cheyne, Philosophical Principles of Religion:

     The heart beats, the blood circulates, the lungs play.

   • The colonel and his sponsor made a queer contrast: Greystone [the sponsor] long and stringy, with a face that seemed as if a cold wind was eternally playing on it.

8. (intransitive) To move to and fro.
   • The setting sun / Plays on their shining arms and burnished helmets.
9. (transitive) To put in action or motion.

10. (transitive) To keep in play, as a hooked fish in order to land it.
11. (transitive, colloquial) To manipulate, deceive, or swindle someone.

    Synonym: defraud

Conjugation

Translations

Noun

play (countable and uncountable, plural plays)

1. (uncountable, formerly countable) Activity for amusement only, especially among the young.
   • 1803, Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

     She was fond of all boys' plays, and greatly preferred cricket […] to dolls […]

2. (uncountable) Similar activity in young animals, as they explore their environment and learn new skills.

3. (uncountable) The conduct, or course, of a game.

4. (uncountable) An individual's performance in a sport or game.

5. (countable) A short sequence of action within a game.

6. (countable, turn-based games) An action carried out when it is one's turn to play.

   Synonym: move

   • 2009, Joe Edley, John Williams, Everything Scrabble: Third Edition (page 85)

     AWARD is better than either WARED or WADER. However, there's an even better play! If you have looked at the two-to-make-three letter list, you may have noticed the word AWA.

7. (countable) A literary composition, intended to be represented by actors impersonating the characters and speaking the dialogue.

   Synonyms: drama; see also Thesaurus:drama

8. (countable) A theatrical performance featuring actors.

9. (countable) An attempt to move forward, as in a plan or strategy, for example by a business, investor, or political party.

10. (countable) A geological formation that contains an accumulation or prospect of hydrocarbons or other resources.
11. (uncountable) The extent to which a part of a mechanism can move freely.

12. (uncountable, informal) Sexual activity or sexual role-playing.
    • 1996, "toptigger", (on Internet newsgroup alt.personals.spanking.punishment)

      Palm Springs M seeks sane F 4 safe bdsm play
13. (countable) An instance of watching or listening to digital media.

    Synonyms: (of visual media) view, (of audio) listen
14. (countable) A button that, when pressed, causes media to be played.
15. (archaic, now usually in compounds) Activity relating to martial combat or fighting.

    handplay, swordplay

Translations

Derived terms

See also

• outdoor

Further reading

• play on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• play at OneLook Dictionary Search
• play in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• paly, pyla

Chinese

Etymology

Borrowed from English play, possibly via Japanese ??? (purei).

Pronunciation

Suffix

play

1. play (sexual roleplaying)

   ??play / ??play  ?  xi?ch? play  ?  erotic humiliation

   ??play / ??play  ?  n?zhu?ng play  ?  crossdressing

   ?????play / ?????play  ?  gèzh?ng qíguài de play  ?  all kinds of strange sexual roleplaying

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English play.

Noun

play m (invariable)

1. play (theatrical performance; start key)

Interjection

play!

1. used to announce the start a game of tennis

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English play.

Noun

play m (plural playes)

1. play (button)

English

Etymology

From Middle English casten, from Old Norse kasta (“to throw, cast, overturn”), from Proto-Germanic *kast?n? (“to throw, cast”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Scots cast (“to cast, throw”), Danish kaste (“to throw”), Swedish kasta (“to throw, cast, fling, toss, discard”), Icelandic kasta (“to pitch, toss”). In the sense of "flinging", displaced native warp.

The senses relating to broadcasting are based on that same term; compare -cast.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation): enPR: käst, IPA^(key): /k??st/
• (Northern England): enPR: k?st, IPA^(key): /kast/
• (General American): enPR: k?st, IPA^(key): /kæst/
• Rhymes: -??st, -æst
• Homophones: caste, karst

Verb

cast (third-person singular simple present casts, present participle casting, simple past and past participle cast or (nonstandard) casted)

1. (physical) To move, or be moved, away.
   1. (now somewhat literary) To throw. [from 13^thc.]
      • 1623, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

        Why then a Ladder quaintly made of Cords / To cast vp, with a paire of anchoring hookes, / Would serue to scale another Hero's towre […].

      • 1760, Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, p.262:

        The more, an' please your honour, the pity, said the Corporal; in uttering which, he cast his spade into the wheelbarrow […].

   2. To throw forward (a fishing line, net etc.) into the sea. [from 14^thc.]
      • 1526, Bible, tr. William Tyndale, Matthew 4:

        As Jesus walked by the see off Galile, he sawe two brethren: Simon which was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, castynge a neet into the see (for they were fisshers) […].

   3. To throw down or aside. [from 15^thc.]
      • 1611, Bible, Authorized Version, Matthew VI.30:

        it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

      • 1930, "Sidar the Madman", Time, 19 Dec.:

        Near Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, Madman, co-pilot and plane were caught in a storm, cast into the Caribbean, drowned.

      • 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, 2010, p.316:

        Her bow is not to her liking. In a temper, she casts it on the grass.

   4. (of an animal) To throw off (the skin) as a process of growth; to shed the hair or fur of the coat. [from 15^thc.]
   5. To cause (a horse or other large animal) to lie down with its legs underneath it.
   6. (obsolete except in set phrases) To remove, take off (clothes). [from 14^thc.]
      • 1822, "Life of Donald McBane", Blackwood's Magazine, vol.12, p.745:

        when the serjeant saw me, he cast his coat and put it on me, and they carried me on their shoulders to a village where the wounded were and our surgeons […].

      • 2002, Jess Cartner-Morley, "How to Wear Clothes", The Guardian, 2 March:

        You know the saying, "Ne'er cast a clout till May is out"? Well, personally, I'm bored of my winter clothes by March.

   7. (nautical) To heave the lead and line in order to ascertain the depth of water.
   8. (obsolete) To vomit.

      • These verses […] make me ready to cast.

   9. (archaic) To throw up, as a mound, or rampart.

      • Thine enemies shall cast a trench [bank] about thee.
   10. (archaic) To throw out or emit; to exhale.
       • 1695 (first published), 1726 (final dated of publication) John Woodward, An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth and Terrestrial Bodies

         This […] casts a sulphurous smell.

   • 1849, Philip Henry Gosse, Natural History

     This horned bird, as it casts a strong smell, so it hath a foul look, much exceeding the European Raven in bigness

2. To direct (one's eyes, gaze etc.). [from 13^thc.]
   • 1595, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3:

     To whom do Lyons cast their gentle Lookes? Not to the Beast, that would vsurpe their Den.

   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, I.11:

     She then yawned again, threw aside her book, and cast her eyes round the room in quest of some amusement […].
3. (dated) To add up (a column of figures, accounts etc.); cross-cast refers to adding up a row of figures. [from 14^thc.]
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2:

     The Clearke of Chartam: hee can write and / reade, and cast accompt.

   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     I cast up the notches on my post, and found I had been on shore three hundred and sixty-five days.

4. (social) To predict, to decide, to plan.
   1. (astrology) To calculate the astrological value of (a horoscope, birth etc.). [from 14^thc.]
      • , vol.1, New York Review of Books, 2001, p.309:

        he is […] a perfect astrologer, that can cast the rise and fall of others, and mark their errant motions to his own use.

      • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, 2012, p.332:

        John Gadbury confessed that Mrs Cellier, ‘the Popish Midwife’, had asked him to cast the King's nativity, although the astrology claimed to have refused to do so.

      • 1985, Lawrence Durrell, Quinx, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p.1197:

        He did the washing up and stayed behind to watch the dinner cook while she hopped off with a friend to have her horoscope cast by another friend.

   2. (obsolete) To plan, intend. [14^th-19^thc.]
      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.i:

        I wrapt my selfe in Palmers weed, / And cast to seeke him forth through daunger and great dreed.

      • 1685, William Temple, "Upon the Gardens of Epicurus

        The cloister […] had, I doubt not, been cast for [an orange-house].

   3. (transitive) To assign (a role in a play or performance). [from 18^thc.]

   4. (transitive) To assign a role in a play or performance to (an actor).

   5. To consider; to turn or revolve in the mind; to plan.

      • She […] cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.

   6. (archaic) To impose; to bestow; to rest.
      • Cast thy burden upon the Lord.

   7. (archaic) To defeat in a lawsuit; to decide against; to convict.
      • 1822, John Galt, The Provost

        She was cast to be hanged.

      • 1667, Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety

        Were the case referred to any competent judge, […] they would inevitably be cast.

   8. To turn (the balance or scale); to overbalance; hence, to make preponderate; to decide.
      • 24 July, 1659, Robert South, Interest Deposed, and Truth Restored

        How much interest casts the balance in cases dubious!

5. To perform, bring forth (a magical spell or enchantment).
6. To throw (light etc.) on or upon something, or in a given direction.
   • 1950, "A Global View", Time, 24 April:

     The threat of Russian barbarism sweeping over the free world will cast its ominous shadow over us for many, many years.

   • 1960, Lawrence Durrell, Clea:

     A sudden thought cast a gloom over his countenance.

7. (archaic) To give birth to (a child) prematurely; to miscarry. [from 15^thc.]
   • , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.98:

     being with childe, they may without feare of accusation, spoyle and cast [transl. avorter] their children, with certaine medicaments, which they have only for that purpose.

   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.20:

     The abortion of a woman they describe by an horse kicking a wolf; because a mare will cast her foal if she tread in the track of that animal.

9. To shape (molten metal etc.) by pouring into a mould; to make (an object) in such a way. [from 15^thc.]
   • 1923, "Rodin's Death", Time, 24 March:

     One copy of the magnificent caveman, The Thinker, of which Rodin cast several examples in bronze, is seated now in front of the Detroit Museum of Art, where it was placed last autumn.

   1. (printing, dated) To stereotype or electrotype.
10. To twist or warp (of fabric, timber etc.). [from 16^thc.]
    • c. 1680, Joseph Moxon, The Art of Joinery

      Stuff is said to cast or warp when […] it alters its flatness or straightness.

11. (nautical) To bring the bows of a sailing ship on to the required tack just as the anchor is weighed by use of the headsail; to bring (a ship) round. [from 18^thc.]
12. To deposit (a ballot or voting paper); to formally register (one's vote). [from 19^thc.]
13. (computing) To change a variable type from, for example, integer to real, or integer to text. [from 20^thc.]

14. (hunting) Of dogs, hunters: to spread out and search for a scent. [from 18^thc.]
    • 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber and Faber, 2005, p.50:

      He clambered on to an apron of rock that held its area out to the sun and began to cast across it. The direction of the wind changed and the scent touched him again.

15. (medicine) To set (a bone etc.) in a cast.

    (Can we add an example for this sense?)

16. (Wicca) To open a circle in order to begin a spell or meeting of witches.
17. (media) To broadcast.

Conjugation

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

cast (plural casts)

1. An act of throwing.
2. (fishing) An instance of throwing out a fishing line.
3. Something which has been thrown, dispersed etc.

   • a cast of scatter'd dust

4. A small mass of earth "thrown off" or excreted by a worm.

5. The collective group of actors performing a play or production together. Contrasted with crew.

   He’s in the cast of Oliver.

   The cast was praised for a fine performance.

6. The casting procedure.

   The men got into position for the cast, two at the ladle, two with long rods, all with heavy clothing.

7. An object made in a mould.

   The cast would need a great deal of machining to become a recognizable finished part.

8. A supportive and immobilising device used to help mend broken bones.

   The doctor put a cast on the boy’s broken arm.

9. The mould used to make cast objects.

   A plaster cast was made from his face.

10. (hawking) The number of hawks (or occasionally other birds) cast off at one time; a pair.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.7:

      As when a cast of Faulcons make their flight / An an Herneshaw, that lyes aloft on wing […].

11. A squint.
    • 1847, John Churchill, A manual of the principles and practice of ophthalmic medicine and surgery, p. 389, paragraph 1968:

      The image of the affected eye is clearer and in consequence the diplopy more striking the less the cast of the eye; hence the double vision will be noticed by the patient before the misdirection of the eye attracts the attention of those about him.

    • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 7:

      Arriving in Brittany, the Woodville exiles found a sallow young man, with dark hair curled in the shoulder-length fashion of the time and a penchant for expensively dyed black clothes, whose steady gaze was made more disconcerting by a cast in his left eye – such that while one eye looked at you, the other searched for you.

12. Visual appearance.

    Her features had a delicate cast to them.
13. The form of one's thoughts, mind etc.

    a cast of mind, a mental tendency.

    • 1894, Wilson Lloyd Bevan, Sir William Petty : A Study in English Economic Literature, p. 40:

      The cast of mind which prompted the plan was permanent, and in it are to be found both the strength and the weakness of Petty's character.

    • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p. 330:

      I have read all her articles and come to admire both her elegant turn of phrase and the noble cast of mind which inspires it; but never, I confess, did I look to see beauty and wit so perfectly united.

14. An animal, especially a horse, that is unable to rise without assistance.
15. Animal and insect remains which have been regurgitated by a bird.
16. A group of crabs.
17. A broadcast.

Derived terms

• castless
• plaster cast

Translations

Further reading

• cast at OneLook Dictionary Search
• cast in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• ACTs, ATCs, ATSC, Acts, CATs, CTAs, Cats, STCA, TACS, TCAS, TCAs, TSCA, acts, cats, scat

Catalan

Etymology

From Old Occitan [Term?], from Latin castus, possibly borrowed or semi-learned.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?kast/

Adjective

cast (feminine casta, masculine plural casts or castos, feminine plural castes)

1. chaste

Related terms

• castedat

Further reading

• “cast” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [k??st]
• Hyphenation: cast

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English cast.

Noun

cast m (plural casts, diminutive castje n)

1. cast (people performing a movie or play)

Synonyms

• rolbezetting
• rolverdeling

Related terms

• casten

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

cast

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of casten
2. imperative of casten

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English cast.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kast/
• Hyphenation: càst

Noun

cast m (invariable)

1. cast (group of actors performing together)

Manx

Adjective

cast

1. contorted, curly, curved
2. complex, intricate, many-sided
3. ticklish

Mutation

Derived terms

• castid
• castys
• neuchast
• yl-chast

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin castus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kast/

Adjective

cast m or n (feminine singular cast?, masculine plural ca?ti, feminine and neuter plural caste)

1. chaste, clean, pure

Declension

Synonyms

• pur

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kast/, [?kast?]

Noun

cast m (plural casts)

1. cast (group of actors)