English

Verb

play off

1. (transitive) To pretend to not be embarrassed, upset, impressed, or otherwise affected by something.

   After tripping, Sara tried to play her embarrassment off by laughing with everyone else.‎

   Although he's obviously hung over, he's trying to play it off as food poisoning.‎

2. (sports) To compete against in a play-off.
3. (dated) To display; to show; to put in exercise.

   to play off tricks