play to win - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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to play to win (third-person singular simple present plays to win, present participle playing to win, simple past and past participle played to win)
- (sports) To play in an especially competitive, committed manner, focused intently on winning.
- (idiomatic, by extension) To make a special, determined effort to achieve general success or a particular goal, in life, in one's career, in negotiation, etc.
1856, Charles Reade, chapter 24, in It Is Never Too Late to Mend:
"I play to win. I am playing for human lives. This, sir, is the torture, marks of which you have seen on the prisoners; but your inexperience will not detect at a glance all the diabolical ingenuity and cruelty that lurks in this piece of linen and these straps of leather."
- 1988, David Mahoney (chairman, Norton Simon Inc.), quoted in The Executive's Book of Quotations (Oxford, 1994), →ISBN, p. 298:
- "The difference between playing to win and playing not to lose is the difference between the successful executive and the security-hunting, mediocre man.
2009 December 16, “People Who Mattered: Rahm Emanuel”, in Time:
Rahm Emanuel was certainly a surprising choice for chief of staff — he's a hard-cussing, old-school-campaign knife fighter and pragmatic congressional arm twister who plays to win.