play with fire

present singular third person plays with fire · participle present playing with fire · participle past played with fire · past played with fire

1. idiomaticTo put oneself in a precarious situation with a high risk of getting harmed, particularly emotionally or financially.

   Play with fire and you get burned.

   4 more examples

   I'm telling you, if you sign that paper, you're playing with fire.

   Long predicted by climate models, stratospheric cooling is a result of the Earth’s atmosphere attempting to maintain its energy "balance." Much more work will need to be performed before this troubling surprise is fully understood, but it already illustrates the recklessness of this "planetary experiment" that humanity has under way. We are not only playing with fire, but ice as well. As Robert Frost wrote, "Some say the world will end in fire; some say in ice." Either one, he added, "would suffice."

   2013, Al Gore, The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change, New York: Random House, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 310–311

   Uganda’s hardline President Yoweri Museveni has warned citizens planning anti-corruption protests Tuesday that they are “playing with fire.”

   2024 July 22, Nimi Princewill, “Uganda’s President Museveni warns citizens they are ‘playing with fire’ over planned protests”, in CNN

   The Labour party is playing with fire; or, more accurately with its future, and that of the country.

   2026 May 26, Jessica Elgot, quoting Tony Blair, “Tony Blair tells Starmer and rivals: abandon net zero and move closer to Trump”, in The Guardian, →ISSN