Playground Phrases

Phrases

• A Doll's House (play by Henrik Ibsen)
• A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play (Mars Chocolate advertising slogan)
• A Streetcar Named Desire (Marlon Brando movie)
• Action Man (children's male doll)
• Address the ball (golfing term denoting readiness to play)
• All children, except one, grow up (the opening line of Peter Pan)
• All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
• Alma Mater (the school or college from which a person has graduated)
• An Ideal Husband (play by Oscar Wilde)
• And shining morning face, creeping like a snail unwillingly to school
• Angels in America (play by Tony Kushner)
• As solid as the ground we walk on
• Back to school
• Billy Liar (Novel and play by Keith Waterhouse and Tom Courtenay / Julie Christie movie)
• Break new ground
• Brum brum (child's play idiom expressing the sound of a vehicle)
• Built from the ground up
• Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (play by Tennesee Williams and Elizabeth Taylor movie)
• Charm school
• Child's play
• Children and fools tell the truth
• Children should be seen and not heard
• Children's shoes have far to go (Start-Rite Shoes advertising slogan)
• Children, one is one, two is fun, three is a house full
• Chips With Everything (Arnold Wesker play)
• Close of play
• Come out and play
• Common ground
• Cut the ground from under your feet
• Dark And Bloody Ground (Nickname of the US state of Kentucky)
• Death of a Salesman (play by Arthur Miller)
• Doesn't know his arse from a hole in the ground
• Don't play the innocent
• Down to the ground
• Everything to play for
• Fair play
• Fair play to you
• Fall on stony ground
• Gain ground
• Games people play
• Get in on the ground floor
• Get off the ground
• Glow Little Glow-worm (children's nursery rhyme)
• Go and play in the traffic
• Go to ground
• Goodnight children everywhere (A catchphrase from Uncle Mac)
• Grapes, like children, need love and affection (Almaden advertising slogan)
• Ground Hog Day (Nickname of basketball player Tim Duncan)
• Ground ball (A baseball expression meaning a prosaic or ordinary accomplishment)
• Ground zero
• Happy hunting ground
• He will never play the piano again
• Hedda Gabler (play by Henrik Ibsen)
• Hit the ground running
• Horse play
• How does that play in Peoria?
• I took my harp to the party but no one asked me to play
• If music be the food of love, play on (from Twelth Night by Shakespeare)
• In on the ground floor
• In play
• It was twenty years ago today Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play (Beatles song lyric)
• It's good to play together (Microsoft Xbox advertising slogan)
• It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game
• Juno and the Paycock (play by Sean O'Casey)
• Keep your ear to the ground
• Keep your feet on the ground
• Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars (A catchphrase from Casey Kasem In America's Top 40)
• Kid n' Play (Nickname of Kevin Martin)
• Lady Madonna, children at your feet (Beatles song lyric)
• Lady Windermere's Fan (play by Oscar Wilde)
• Let's rock (A catchphrase from Al Bundy In Married With Children)
• Live in your world, play in ours (Sony advertising slogan)
• Long Day's Journey into Night (play by Eugene O'Neil)
• Lose ground on
• Love play
• Make a play for
• Make great play of
• Man and Superman (play by George Bernard Shaw)
• Midnight's Children
• Mother Courage (play by Bertolt Brecht)
• Mourning Becomes Electra (play by Eugene O'Neill)
• Neutral ground
• Never tell tales out of school
• O Romeo, Romeo; wherefore art thou Romeo (from the play by Shakespeare)
• Old school
• Old school tie
• On dangerous ground
• Our children are not our children
• Play Cupid
• Play God
• Play Misty For Me (Clint Eastwood movie)
• Play a blinder
• Play a waiting game
• Play around
• Play ball
• Play both ends against the middle
• Play by ear
• Play by play
• Play by the rules
• Play catch up
• Play catchup

• Play chicken
• Play dead
• Play devil's advocate
• Play dirty
• Play ducks and drakes
• Play fast and loose
• Play favorites
• Play favourites
• Play for keeps
• Play for time
• Play from the tips
• Play gooseberry
• Play hard to get
• Play hardball (A baseball expression meaning to be or act tough or aggressive)
• Play havoc with
• Play hell
• Play hide the sausage
• Play hookey
• Play it again Sam
• Play it again, Sam (New York State Lottery advertising slogan)
• Play it by the book
• Play it cool
• Play it for laughs
• Play it safe
• Play kissy face
• Play off
• Play possum
• Play safe
• Play second fiddle
• Play silly buggers
• Play softball (A baseball expression meaning to ask easy questions)
• Play the field (- indulge in a series of sexual relationships)
• Play the fool
• Play the game
• Play the old soldier
• Play the percentage game
• Play the race card
• Play the white man
• Play to win
• Play with fire
• Play within a play
• Play your cards right
• Play your part
• Play yourself in
• Playboy of the Western World (play by John Millington Synge)
• Plug and play
• Political high ground
• Prepare the ground
• Raze to the ground
• Roll over and play dead
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (play by Tom Stoppard)
• Run to ground
• School dunce
• School for scandal
• School of fish
• School of hard knocks
• School of thought
• School's out for summer
• School's out forever
• She Stoops to Conquer (play by Oliver Goldsmith)
• So fast your feet won't touch the ground
• Stamping ground
• Suffer the little children
• Suits you down to the ground
• Sunday school
• Sword play
• Talk out of school
• Tell tales out of school
• Ten summersets he'll undertake on solid ground (Beatles song lyric)
• The Admirable Crichton (Play by J M Barrie and nickname of James Crichton)
• The Adventure of the Priory School (Sherlock Holmes story)
• The Boys in the Band (play by Mart Crowley)
• The Bronx Zoo (Nickname of Benjamin Harrison High School)
• The Cherry Orchard (play by Anton Chekhov)
• The Devil's Disciple (Bernard Shaw play and Burt Lancaster movie)
• The Famous Five (characters in Enid Blyton's series of children's book)
• The Ginger Man (play by JP Donleavy)
• The Glass Menagerie (play by Tennessee Williams)
• The Iceman Cometh (play by Eugene O'Neill)
• The Importance of Being Ernest (play by Oscar Wilde)
• The Plough and the Stars (play by Sean O'Casey)
• The Quare Fellow (play by Brendan Behan)
• The Scottish play
• The moral high ground
• The play's the thing
• The wheels on the bus go round and round (title of children's song)
• Thin on the ground
• Threepenny Opera (play by Bertolt Brecht)
• Trap and ball (children's ball game)
• Triple play (A baseball expression denoting the act of making three outs during the same play)
• Twas the night before Christmas - the children were dreaming of a Ford in their future - smart, swanky and gleaming (Ford Cars advertising slogan)
• Two can play at that game
• View from a Bridge (play by Arthur Miller)
• Waiting for Godot (play by Samuel Beckett)
• What Katy Did At School
• When the cat's away the mice will play
• Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf? (play by Edward Albee)
• Women and children first
• Work yourself into the ground
• You don't know your ass from a hole in the ground
• You hum it and I'll play it