CHILD'S PLAY

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does child's play mean? 

• CHILD'S PLAY (noun)
  The noun CHILD'S PLAY has 2 senses:

1. any undertaking that is easy to do

2. activity by children that is guided more by imagination than by fixed rules

  Familiarity information: CHILD'S PLAY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHILD'S PLAY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any undertaking that is easy to do

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

breeze; child's play; cinch; duck soup; picnic; piece of cake; pushover; snap; walkover

Context example:

marketing this product will be no picnic

Hypernyms ("child's play" is a kind of...):

labor; project; task; undertaking (any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "child's play"):

doddle (an easy task)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Activity by children that is guided more by imagination than by fixed rules

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

child's play; play

Context example:

Freud believed in the utility of play to a small child

Hypernyms ("child's play" is a kind of...):

diversion; recreation (an activity that diverts or amuses or stimulates)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "child's play"):

house (play in which children take the roles of father or mother or children and pretend to interact like adults)

doctor (children take the roles of physician or patient or nurse and pretend they are at the physician's office)

fireman (play in which children pretend to put out a fire)

 Context examples 

“It is but child's play, this poking game,” said John.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It's child's play to find the stuff now.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The severest toil was child's play compared with this.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It was a child's play, chosen to conceal a deeper game on Frank Churchill's part.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Why all the painting that I have seen is but child's play beside this.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)