Play the heavy
Act the part of a villain; take the blame for unkind behavior. For example, She can’t bear firing an employee, so she relies on Jim to play the heavy. This colloquial term comes from the theater, where heavy has been used for a stern, serious role or that of a villain since the early 1800s.
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verb phrase To do fellatio (1940s+)
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verb phrase To use an exploitive or inflammatory maneuver: Milosevic saw that the best way to hold on to power was to play the nationalist card (1886+)