played out
Preserved but no longer current.
Exhausted; out of date; no longer in vogue. Playing to the gallery, or to the gods. Appeal- ing to the less cultured taste attributed to the common people; appealing to sensational rather than artistic taste.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “played out” mean?
Exhausted; out of date; no longer in vogue. Playing to the gallery, or to the gods. Appeal- ing to the less cultured taste attributed to the common people; appealing to sensational rather than artistic taste.
Is “played out” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.