play it safe

• play safe

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

1. To take a cautious, risk-free approach.

   Deciding to play it safe, he joined his father's accounting firm rather than pursue an acting career.

   Antonym: go all in

• hedge one's bets
• on the safe side

• “play it safe”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “play it safe” in the Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• “play it safe”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.