Dictionary

play it pear-shaped en · VERB

Etymology

Compare go pear-shaped (“to go awry; to go wrong”), attested somewhat later.

Meanings

1. (dated, qualifier:RAF slang) To avoid committing oneself to a single course of action; to go with the flow, take it easy.
   • "Playing it pear-shaped" was a favourite expression of Jock's; it seemed to mean deftly turning a situation to one's own advantage; seizing a favorable opportunity: Boxing Clever. [1973, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Mortdecai's Endgame (Mortdecai; 1), Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 180:
   • I thought I'd play it pear-shaped with the Borough Engineer and asked him whose property it was anyway when it was in my garden — if the Council put it there enough times, it meant they were trying to get rid of it even though they didn't own it. 1964, Densil Barr, “I Hate You Lamp-Post, You Know I Love You”, in Joseph F. McCrindle, editor, The Transatlantic Review, number 17, page 112:
   • When their plans were going awry, Wattis soothed them by saying they were going to "play it pear-shaped" (ie it would all go smoothly). 1999 December 11, “The town formerly known as Upton-cum-Chalvey”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 14 Nov 2022:

Forms