What does the expression ‘play for time’ mean?

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What does the expression ‘play for time’ mean?

The phrase ‘play for time’ is used to describe a particular situation where somebody is trying to stall and take as much time as possible in order to use up the time or gain more time. People use many delay tactics to stall or play for time such as asking somebody to repeat what they just said or changing the subject in order to distract the listener.

 

Children often play for time when its time to go to bed. Most children would prefer to stay up playing games, watching a cartoon or reading books rather than calming down and going to bed.

When it is bedtime, they’ll often make excuses for why they should stay up a little bit longer, like they want to finish the movie or play one more game or read one more chapter of the book. They’re playing for time, they will do anything to stay up that little bit longer, to gain a bit more time before they have to go to bed.

 

Here are some other examples of how we can use the phrase:

  • Due to unforeseen circumstances, the marketing team’s presentation of ideas for the new campaign wasn’t ready on time so the team leader decided to play for time while his team worked on the presentation. He gave the new clients a tour of the agency and a brief history of the agency, by the time they arrived at the conference room the presentation was ready. 
  • The detective had his suspect in custody and was waiting for the evidence to be processed before he could charge the suspect with assault. He had to play for time while he was waiting so he asked the suspect to fill out forms and write a detailed statement.

 

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