play the victim card
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To pretend to be a victim to gain sympathy or advantage
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
giả vờ là nạn nhân để thu hút sự đồng cảm hoặc lợi thế
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: using a card to represent victimhood
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
She played the victim card to get out of doing her homework
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “play the victim card” mean?
To pretend to be a victim to gain sympathy or advantage Literally: using a card to represent victimhood
Is “play the victim card” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.