play both sides against the middle

present singular third person plays both sides against the middle · participle present playing both sides against the middle · participle past played both sides against the middle · past played both sides against the middle · alternative play both ends against the middle · alternative work both ends against the middle · alternative work both sides against the middle

1. idiomaticTo manipulate opponents or competitors in a manner which benefits the manipulator.

   Luciano went about playing both sides against the middle until the two families went at each other in the famously bloody Castellamarese War later in the decade...

   2005, T. J. English, Paddy Whacked: the Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster, page 133

   3 more examples

   Some of the lesser Democrats, especially in the remoter reaches of the Bible country, have the same yearning, but they are not as numerous as the Republicans, all of whom have been greatly embarrassed by Dr. Hoover's laborious efforts to play both sides against the middle.

   1932, George Jean Nathan, Henry Louis Mencken, The American Mercury, page 383

   While the Kremlin stood by and tried to play both sides against the middle, the defeat of the Palestinians in Lebanon helped establish the political atmosphere that enabled Sadat to make his trip to Jerusalem.

   1978, Intercontinental Press/Inprecor, volume 16, page 1127

   Patsy may have been playing both sides against the middle in an effort to get her career going and to get herself out from under Peer's pressuring and the sexual demands he placed on her.

   1999, Margaret Jones, Patsy: the Life and Times of Patsy Cline, page 50