play booty

play booty (third-person singular simple present plays booty, present participle playing booty, simple past and past participle played booty)

1. (archaic, idiomatic) To hustle (play deliberately badly at a game or sport in an attempt to encourage players to challenge one).
   • 1692, 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:

     So that we understand what we ought to do; but when we come to deliberate, we play booty against ourselves

2. (archaic, idiomatic, figurative, by extension) To double-cross someone.
   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

     Oh, we see through you, John Silver; you want to play booty, that’s what’s wrong with you.

• “Booty”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.