role

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have a role in (something)

1. To have a specific involvement or participation in something. There's no use lying to the committee, Mr. Marshall, as we know for a fact that you had a role in hiding your company's losses from its investors.
2. Literally, to have a job portraying a certain character in a performance. I hear that Samantha has a role in some new film. She's really making her way into the big leagues!
See also: have, role

play a big role (in something)

To have an extremely important or fundamental role (in some resultant situation, action, event, outcome, etc.). There were a lot of reason why I quit, but having to work 10 hours a day played a big role. Punk rock played a big role in forming my aesthetic sensibilities. The rookie quarterback ended up playing a big role in the team's amazing comeback victory yesterday.
See also: big, play, role

play a bit role (in something)

1. Literally, to act out a very small, inconsequential role (in some piece of drama, film, or television). I originally started off playing a bit role in the sitcom, but over the years the character became wildly popular and really launched my career. A: "I heard you're in the latest Schwarzenegger movie, right?" B: "Yeah, I'm just playing a bit role, though."
2. By extension, to have a very small, inconsequential role (in some resultant situation, action, event, outcome, etc.). I know you feel like you only played a bit role in our victory today, but you were just as important out there as everyone else on the team. A: "I suppose those long, 12-hour days were why you quit, huh?" B: "Actually, those only played a bit role—it was mostly just because I hated my boss."
See also: bit, play, role

play a large role (in something)

To have an extremely important or fundamental role (in some resultant situation, action, event, outcome, etc.). There were a lot of reason why I quit, but having to work 10 hours a day played a large role. Punk rock played a large role in forming my aesthetic sensibilities. The rookie quarterback ended up playing a large role in the team's amazing comeback victory yesterday.
See also: large, play, role

play a role in (something)

1. To have a specific involvement or participation in something. There's no use lying to the committee, Mr. Marshall, as we know for a fact that you played a role in hiding your company's losses from its investors.
2. Literally, to have a job portraying a certain character in a performance. I hear that Samantha is playing a role in some new film. She's really making her way into the big leagues!
See also: play, role

play a small role (in something)

1. Literally, to act out a very small, inconsequential role (in some piece of drama, film, or television). I originally started off playing a small role in the sitcom, but over the years the character became wildly popular and really launched my career. A: "I heard you're in the latest Schwarzenegger movie, right?" B: "Yeah, I'm just playing a small role, though."
2. By extension, to have a very small, inconsequential role (in some resultant situation, action, event, outcome, etc.). I know you feel like you only played a small role in our victory today, but you were just as important out there as everyone else on the team. A: "I suppose those long, 12-hour days were why you quit, huh?" B: "Actually, those only played a small role—it was mostly just because I hated my boss."
See also: play, role, small
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

play a part in something

 and play a role in something 
1. to participate in something in a specific way. I hope to play a part in the development of the new product. I want to play a role in this procedure.
2. to portray a character in a performance. He played a part in The Mikado, but it was not a major role. Larry wanted to play a role in the next play.
See also: part, play
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

role model

An individual whose behavior serves as an exemplar to others. This expression, dating from the second half of the 1900s, alludes to acting out parts in a theatrical production. It appeared in the New York Times Magazine (June 26, 1977): “If the teacher was a ‘role model’ parents were obviously unaware of it.”
See also: model, role
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer
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References in periodicals archive ?
Descriptive statistics were used to examine the sample characteristics and their participation in roles. Differences between age groups with a view to the proportions currently participating in each role were examined by the [chi square] test.
Continuity and Change in Roles. Table 2 displays the participants' role patterns--that is, the continuity and change in roles across time--as interpreted from the participants' combinations of self-reported past, present, and anticipated future role participation.
Role Participation: A Comparison across Age Groups in a Norwegian General Population Sample
Gender differences concerning the total number of performed roles and the number of roles in each of the ICF participation areas were examined with the independent t-test.
Table 1 displays how frequently the ten roles were endorsed for each of the three periods: past, present, and future.
Role performance and role valuation among occupational therapy students in Norway
and Beehr, Tang and Chang (2010) define role ambiguity as "lack of specificity and predictability for an employee's job or role functions and responsibility" (p.870).
Role ambiguity may also be the result of changes in the external environment and the subsequent reactions within the organization (Forte, Hoffman, Lamont, and Brockmann, 2000).
Faculty Role Perceptions at University Level
Its lowest layer has many atom roles, which are the smallest division of a role and have atomic features.
When a user need to complete a task, the system will match the user's identity and the task that needs to be done with the corresponding permissions of resource providers, and make them correspond to appropriate atom roles. In this course, the user perhaps needs multiple atom roles.
A dynamic role-based authorization model in grid environment
Measurement of stress in organizational roles: Revalidating the framework.
Role stress results from problems encountered in role performance.
Heterogeneity of role stress
A majority of Afghans (51%) surveyed in June said the United Nations currently plays a reconstruction role in their country and a higher percentage (57%) said this is the role the organization should play.
As with the other groups and countries Gallup asked about, Afghans were most likely to see Iran playing a role in the country's reconstruction.
Afghans Assess Roles for NATO, U.N., Regional Actors; Reconstruction viewed as the top job, currently and ideally
The findings of this study indicated that inter-role distance and role erosion were found to be dominant contributors of role stress whereas role ambiguity and personal inadequacy were the least dominant contributors of role stress in all the three job categories.
Organizational role stress: confirmatory factor analysis approach
Traditionally the role of a smuggler belongs to Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford.
Star Wars 7: Top 5 Roles Tom Cruise Can Play in the Upcoming Movie
The first goal of this research was to investigate the extent to which elite athletes are adopted as role models by admirers as well as to explore how such role models are selected.
Gender and the selection of public athletic role models
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