unplay

present singular third person unplays · participle present unplaying · participle past unplayed · past unplayed

1. transitiveHypothetically, to undo the playing of.

   I feel like a traitor, but what's done is done. I can't unplay that note, even if it was a sour one.

   2003, Mary Sheppard, The Winds of Change, page 82

2. ambitransitiveTo interact with something in a way that subverts the conventions of playing.

   How they might go about unplaying a work would be awkward, but it might involve asking performers to commit to their idiosyncrasies and play away from what's given.

   2022, Eldritch Priest, Earworm and Event

   1 more example

   Flanagan outlines three kinds of critical play enacted by Victorian girls with dolls: In doll play, unplaying manifests in children abusing their dolls, "killing" them, or some other revision of the "care giving" framework […]

   2020, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, How Pac-Man Eats, page 101