role play

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

1. Alternative form of roleplay.
   • 2000 August 26, Norine Dresser, “Role-Playing Dilemma”, in Los Angeles Times‎^[1], Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 November 2025:

     In Asia, where the teacher is the complete source of knowledge, students listen, take notes, memorize, recite and follow directions. Students’ ideas are neither requested nor valued. Asking them to role play threatens this established hierarchy.

   • 2011 March 1, “How role playing can perfect your interview skills”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎^[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 November 2014:

     Role playing your interview from beginning to end (with a friend "acting" the interviewer) can do more than just reveal a limp handshake. […] An interviewer will probably dig around for red-flag areas, and role playing your answers will help you deal with these gracefully.

   • 2021 July 14, Todd Martens, “Games are therapy. Don’t believe us? Ask famed relationship therapist Esther Perel”, in Los Angeles Times‎^[3], Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 July 2021:

     Therapy can and even sometimes should feel like a game. For when we play, we are present. But more importantly, we are malleable, dropping preconceived notions of what should or shouldn’t happen. We’re also more accepting of change and open to learning and addressing negative habits. And therapy is an opportunity, of course, to role play.

   • 2021 December 21, Shira Ovide, “The Tech I Want in 2022”, in The New York Times‎^[4], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 December 2021:

     The audio chat room Clubhouse, which also drew a crowd during Covid — and lately, perhaps less so, brings people together to talk about a topic of shared interest or to role play as a McDonald’s drive-through.

   • 2025 November 19, “‘We shoot at the good guys’: the role-players who train US troops – in pictures”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[5], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 November 2025:

     A marine unit in Lake Tahoe role playing as Taliban fighters, 2009 […] Marines sergeant John Sexon, lance corporal Cameron Stark and lance corporal Joshua Stevens role playing as Taliban fighters, 2009

role play (countable and uncountable, plural role plays)

1. Alternative form of roleplay.
   • 1985 August 17, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 6, page 13:

     Lesbian, 34, seeks lesbians who enjoy occasional anal sex and role plays. Light s/m ok too.

   • 1994 April 10, Susan Schnur, “Interview Jitters at Graduate School”, in The New York Times‎^[6], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 November 2025:

     After lunch, candidates steeled themselves for the day's real challenge: an afternoon of role-playing. Sue Wright, the clinical program's coordinator of admissions (and the producer of this annual event), said, "As far as we know, ours is the only program that uses role plays in the interview process."

   • 2019 May 15, M.M. Chouinard, chapter 42, in The Dancing Girls (Detective Jo Fournier; 1), London: Bookouture, →ISBN, part III:

     “[…] There are even zones on certain servers where people go to ERP.” “ERP?” “Erotic role play.” “You go into these games to have sex?”

   • 2019 June 4, Zeta Brown, Helen Perkins, Using Innovative Methods in Early Years Research:

     The second project, role play in packaway settings, was conducted over an extended period of time and moved the mosaic approach from a method, a way of collecting data, to an ethnographic methodology in which I was immersed in the setting and was able to understand the lived experiences of the children.