play to the gallery
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Act in order to appeal to popular taste.
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
hành động để thu hút sự ưa thích của công chúng
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
when he or she is showing off, throwing tantrums (i.e. playing to the gallery, being self - indulgent);
It was the kind of speech which plays well to the gallery of bemused parents in a violent world.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “play to the gallery” mean?
Act in order to appeal to popular taste.
Is “play to the gallery” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.