Play the game

[romelpanzer]

"To play the game " means to act in a proper manner or to behave in a way that is accepted. But, what does it mean when one says " I will not play this game with you". I am sure it was not literal meaning when I heard it. Does it mean he will not co-operate or he does not agree with me. Unfortunately, I can't reproduce the context, as this phrase has come back to my mind after hearing it in a conversation long back.

[Barb_D]

Without more context, it's really hard to say. He must have felt there was something fake about the way you were interacting and he didn't want any part of it.

[BobK]

He doesn't want any part of it - sometimes BECAUSE he regards it as trivial or scheming (when it's scheming the idiom is often expanded: 'I'm not going to play your little game' {The scheme could be something like A says something to B so that B will say something else to C so that C will say something else to D so that D will persuade E to do something that A wanted them to do.})

b

[romelpanzer]

thanks Bard_D and BobK.

[BobK]

(That's the 'Immortal Bard', I guess)

b