Rate this phrase:0.0 / 0 votes

play the man and not the ball

To object to someone's argument by attacking them or a facet of their personality instead of the argument itself; to make an ad hominem attack.
49 Views
“

""What we are seeing is an orchestrated campaign from the Labor Party to try to play the man and not the ball," he said... " this is the kind of personal attack that we are going to see from the Labor Party right up until polling day.""

Collection   Edit    

Submitted on January 20, 2019

Additional definitions for 'play the man and not the ball':

play the man and not the ballTo attack an opponent instead of attacking the ball, which is usually being controlled by the attacked player at the time.
See them all »

Translation

Find a translation for the play the man and not the ball phrase in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Nearby phrases

Some more phrases from our dictionary similar to play the man and not the ball

play upplay withplay the hand one is dealtplay withplay the poniesplay someone like a fiddleplay the ball and not the manplay the giddy goatplay to the crowdPlay the Fieldplay the foolplay to winplay well with othersplay the race card

How to pronounce this phrase?

Discuss this play the man and not the ball phrase with the community:

0 Comments

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this play the man and not the ball definition to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "play the man and not the ball." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 22 Dec. 2024. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/play-the-man-and-not-the-ball_42880>.

    Powered by CITE.ME Cite.Me

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest human-edited phrases collection on the web!

    Quiz

    Are you a phrases master?

    »
    Don't throw stones if you live in a _______.
    A castle
    B glasshouse
    C stone quarry
    D tree

    Browse Phrases.com

    #ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ