play booty

English

Verb

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

1. (archaic, idiomatic) To play a game dishonestly, with an intent to lose; to allow one's adversary to win at cards at first, in order to induce them to continue playing and victimize them afterwards.
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:

     So that we understand what we ought to do; but when we come to deliberate, we play booty against ourselves

2. (archaic, idiomatic, figurative, by extension) To double-cross someone.
   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

     Oh, we see through you, John Silver; you want to play booty, that’s what’s wrong with you.

See also

• hustle

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “play booty”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)