play-actorn.

1633 W. Prynne Histrio-mastix **vij b If any Play-Actors or Spectators thinke themselves injured by any censure I have here past upon them.

a1777 S. Foote Maid of Bath (1778) iii. i. 65 At Edinbrugh last winter, I got acquainted with Maister Fout the play-actor.

1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian iv, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. II. 84 He's been a soldier, and he has been a play-actor, and I watna what he has been or hasna been.

1893 F. F. Moore I forbid Banns 138 We are more or less play-actors.

1934 A. Woollcott While Rome Burns (1936) 51 She had..turned them into successful play-actors.

1989 S. Bellow Bellarosa Connection 10 Sure he dressed in fancy uniforms and walked around with his hand on a long knife he carried in his belt. He was a playactor, but I thought he was civilized.

1823 J. Galt Entail III. iii. 31 Ye ken in thir novelle and playactoring times nobody can tell what might happen.

1836 Wilson's Hist. Tales Borders III. 29 Pittin sic daft-like notions intil a bairn's head as to read play-actorin books an' novels.

1861 D. Murdoch Dutch Dominie of Catskills iii. iii. 315 Frein', what do think o' that kind of play actoring?

1902 Nebraska State Jrnl. 12 May 3/5 The concentration of the wit and play-actoring of Paris life did not begin with the second half of the Nineteenth century.