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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.
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""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.""

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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.
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Nearby phrases

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

play the anglesplay someone like a fiddleplay the race cardplay the anglesplay to winplay the poniesplay the foolPlay the Fireplay the fieldplay the ball and not the manplay the hand one is dealtplay withPlay the Fieldplay up

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    "play the man and not the ball." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Nov. 2024. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/play-the-man-and-not-the-ball_42880>.

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