PLAYGROUND

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does playground mean? 

• PLAYGROUND (noun)
  The noun PLAYGROUND has 2 senses:

1. an area where many people go for recreation

2. yard consisting of an outdoor area for children's play

  Familiarity information: PLAYGROUND used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PLAYGROUND (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An area where many people go for recreation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

playground; resort area; vacation spot

Hypernyms ("playground" is a kind of...):

area; country (a particular geographical region of indefinite boundary (usually serving some special purpose or distinguished by its people or culture or geography))

Meronyms (parts of "playground"):

resort hotel; spa (a fashionable hotel usually in a resort area)

holiday resort; resort; resort hotel (a hotel located in a resort area)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "playground"):

spa; watering hole; watering place (a health resort near a spring or at the seaside)

borscht belt; borscht circuit; borsht belt; borsht circuit ((informal) a resort area in the Catskill Mountains of New York that was patronized primarily by Jewish guests)

Instance hyponyms:

Waikiki (a well-known beach and resort area on Oahu Island to the southeast of Honolulu)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Yard consisting of an outdoor area for children's play

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("playground" is a kind of...):

curtilage; grounds; yard (the enclosed land around a house or other building)

Meronyms (parts of "playground"):

dandle board; seesaw; teeter; teeter-totter; teeterboard; teetertotter; tilting board (a plaything consisting of a board balanced on a fulcrum; the board is ridden up and down by children at either end)

playground slide; slide; sliding board (plaything consisting of a sloping chute down which children can slide)

swing (mechanical device used as a plaything to support someone swinging back and forth)

 Context examples 

But I remember that this importance was a kind of satisfaction to me, when I walked in the playground that afternoon while the boys were in school.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

On the contrary, it seemed rather a piquant thing to us to chevy him about the playground and hit him over the shins with a wicket.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Just look at plastic playground toys, park benches, or lawn chairs, which can rapidly become sun-bleached."

(Sunlight degrades polystyrene faster than expected, National Science Foundation)

One of the pleasures in life is having a home that offers enough space, is in a safe neighborhood, is close to your work, and that offers services nearby, like supermarkets, good schools, playgrounds, and all the other everyday things you need.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

It was after breakfast, and we had been summoned in from the playground, when Mr. Sharp entered and said: David Copperfield is to go into the parlour.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

There was an old door in this playground, on which the boys had a custom of carving their names.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Here I am in the playground, with my eye still fascinated by him, though I can't see him.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But as the noise in the playground would have disturbed Mr. Creakle, and the weather was not favourable for going out walking, we were ordered into school in the afternoon, and set some lighter tasks than usual, which were made for the occasion.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It happened on one occasion, when he was doing me the honour of talking to me in the playground, that I hazarded the observation that something or somebody—I forget what now—was like something or somebody in Peregrine Pickle.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But when I awoke at intervals, the ground outside the window was not the playground of Salem House, and the sound in my ears was not the sound of Mr. Creakle giving it to Traddles, but the sound of the coachman touching up the horses.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)