play booty
verb1
Archaic, Idiomatic To hustle (play deliberately badly at a game or sport in an attempt to encourage players to challenge one).
- So that we understand what we ought to do; but when we come to deliberate, we play booty against ourselves1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:
2
Archaic, Broadly, Figuratively, Idiomatic To double-cross someone.
- Oh, we see through you, John Silver; you want to play booty, that’s what’s wrong with you.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC: