play Old Harry

present singular third person plays Old Harry · participle present playing Old Harry · participle past played Old Harry · past played Old Harry

1. idiomaticTo play the devil; to make mischief.

   Blenkiron and I have been moving in the best circles as skilled American engineers who are going to play Old Harry with the British on the Tigris.

   1916, John Buchan, Greenmantle

   2 more examples

   By his accent and innocent style I detected he was not a colonial, so I got him to relate his history. He was an Englishman by birth, but had been to America, Spain, New Zealand, Tasmania, &c.; by his own make out had ever been a man of note, and had played Old Harry everywhere.

   1901, Miles Franklin, “’Possum Gully Left Behind. Hurrah! Hurrah!”, in My Brilliant Career, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 60

   I distinguish five more general classes: but I am far from equally happy about all of them. They are, however, quite enough to play Old Harry with two fetishes which I admit to an inclination to play Old Harry with, viz. (1) the true/false fetish, (2) the value/fact fetish.'

   1962, J. L. Austin, How to do things with words