roleplay

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See also: rôleplay and role-play

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From role (expected behavior) + play (perform, act).

Pronunciation

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Verb

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roleplay (third-person singular simple present roleplays, present participle roleplaying, simple past and past participle roleplayed)

  1. (intransitive) To act out a scenario or fantasy with another person or other people.
    To spice up their sex life, they like to roleplay.
  2. (transitive) To act as a character as part of a fantasy, especially with a group.
    He likes to roleplay a vampire.
    • 2018 October 17, Drachinifel, 30:18 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918[1], archived from the original on 4 August 2022:
      The particular person roleplaying Beatty in that battle suggested summarily executing Seymour and dumping him overboard.
  3. (transitive, intransitive, by extension) To act out a social role that one does not truly belong to.
    He talks like he's some scrappy bootstrap entrepreneur but he's just some old money rich kid roleplaying.
    • 1982 December 11, Catherine Joseph, “Breaking Barriers”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 21, page 10:
      Realizing that she was an 'other' not only as a black woman but also as a black lesbian, she struggles to fiind someplace where she and other black lesbians like herself could live out their existence without role-playing or conforming to the ideals that were prevalent in the bars at that time.

Coordinate terms

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  • (act out a social role): pass

Translations

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Noun

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roleplay (countable and uncountable, plural roleplays)

  1. The act or practice of roleplaying; an instance of roleplaying.
    • 1985 August 17, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 6, page 13:
      Lesbian, 34, seeks lesbians who enjoy occasional anal sex and role plays. Light s/m ok too.
    • 2008 November 21, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 3, Episode 1:
      Roy: Let's do some roleplay, OK? Do you think that would be a good idea?
      Moss: It helped me learn how to buy sandwiches.
  2. The practice of roleplaying.

Synonyms

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Translations

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See also

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Anagrams

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