power play

See also: powerplay and power-play

English

Alternative forms

• powerplay, power-play

Noun

power play (plural power plays)

1. Tactics used to magnify power or influence.
   • 2013 July 19, Timothy Garton Ash, “Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 18:

     Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.

2. A strategy or maneuver with a similar intention.
   • 2022 November 21, Barney Ronay, “Iran’s brave and powerful gesture is a small wonder from a World Cup of woe”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     This has become a power-play between England, Fifa and the Qatari leadership. England’s players have been very good on these issues.

3. (ice hockey) A situation where a team has a numerical advantage on the ice due to one or more penalties given to the opposing team.

   Coordinate term: penalty kill

4. (sports) A similar situation in other ball games, such as lacrosse, indoor soccer, rugby, and cricket.
5. (curling) A play used to move the stones to the side of the sheet.

Derived terms

• (sports): PP (abbreviation)

Related terms

• power move

Translations

tactics

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: valtapeli (fi)
• French: please add this translation if you can
• German: Machtspiel (de) n
• Hungarian: hatalmi játszma
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can

strategy or maneuver

• Bulgarian: действие от позиция на силата (dejstvie ot pozicija na silata)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: valtapeli (fi)
• Hungarian: hatalmi játszma
• Russian: please add this translation if you can

ice hockey

• Bulgarian: числено превъзходство (čisleno prevǎzhodstvo)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: ylivoimapeli
• French: supériorité numérique (fr) f
• Japanese: パワープレー (pawā purē)
• Russian: большинство́ (ru) n (bolʹšinstvó)
• Swedish: numerärt överläge (sv) n

sports

• Catalan: superioritat numèrica (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: ylivoimapeli
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Swedish: numerärt överläge (sv) n

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} jeu de puissance