play off against

play someone off against (someone else)

to scheme in a manner that pits two of your adversaries against one another. Bill wanted to beat me up and so did Bob. I did some fast talking, and they ended up fighting with each other. I really played Bill off against Bob. The president played the House off against the Senate and ended up getting his own way.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Ansovald	-	Ancient Germanic
Levent	-	Turkish
LÍAdan	LEE-din	Irish
Qismat	-	Arabic
Patricija	-	Slovene, Croatian
Svantovit	-	Slavic Mythology