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JCDenton Posted 18 years ago
Vocabulary

idiom: play a good Samaritan

0Hi,02br
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00I just have a question about an idiom 01u00play a good Samaritan02u00. Please, if someone say that he 01u01b00played good Samaritan02b02u00, could it be taken as that he 01u00faked02u00 an effort of helping people? Or does it mean that he just played the Samaritan in the metaforical meaning, that he 01u00offered help to someone / he helped someone02u00? Please in which situations is this being used? It is my first option or the second one? I came across to this idiom in this sentence.00 02br
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01i01u00Maybe he 01b00played good Samaritan02b00 and it went south02u02i00 01font00(went south = went wrong)02font00. 01i00He was helping people after that incident02i00, right? 00Well, maybe that's 01i00what put him on the wrong side of this guy. 02i01font00(maybe that was the reason why was that guys so angry on him)02font02br
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00many thanks in advance for clarification!02br
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00have a nice day, guys.02br
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00with regards02br
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00JCD02br
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Top answer

02br 02br 00"Good Samaritans are controversial for this reason. 02br 02br 00The G/S was probably sincere and gave it his best shot, and now the speaker is belittleing his efforts. )02br 02br 00 - A.

— Avangi

  • 02br 02br 00"Good Samaritans are controversial for this reason.
  • 02br 02br 00The G/S was probably sincere and gave it his best shot, and now the speaker is belittleing his efforts.
  • )02br 02br 00 - A.
  • 0-
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12 Answers
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0Hi JCD,02br
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00It sounds like the speaker is only guessing, so I doubt we can do much better.02br
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00"This guy" seems to be the guy who was "helped," and is now ****** off at the helper.02br
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00"Good Samaritans are controversial for this reason. They often make matters worse and end up getting sued for their trouble.02b
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0Play 01b00the02b00 good samaritan 0-
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0 Normally you won't hear the exact quote "01i00play02i00 a good Samaritan". I did a Google search for this term and found an article from an Indian newspaper. Is this where you got this quote?02br
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00If not please provide a link or at least some additional context. It's not possible to say exactly what was meant from what you have provided. 0-
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1blockquote
01cite10Avangi12cite12br
10...."This guy" seems to be the guy who was "helped," and is now ****** off at the helper.12br
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10Yes. Many thanks Avangi! I understood it in the same way....This idiom seems to be used widely, at least according google. So I wanted to know an exact meaning..
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0 I have heard quite often02br
00I don't want to play the good samaritan .........02br
00and also said to others02br
00Don't try to play the good samaritan! 0-
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0You can read about the parable that Jesus told online. 02br
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00In practical, modern terms, someone who plays the good Samaritan (which is how I often hear it, along with "act the good Samaritan") stops to help a stranger. It usually applies to situations like an automobile accident. If the person does the best they can, acting as a reasonable person, they won't get sued
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0Many thanks for your notes! Now I'm sure that the 01u00play02u00 word there certainly doesn't mean 01u00fake02u00. 02br
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00best wishes guys.0-
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0[JCDenton"]Or does it mean that he just played the Samaritan in the 01b00metaforical02b00 meaning, that he 01u00offered help to someone / he helped someone02u00? 02br
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01b00It should be01i00 metaphorical.02i00 hope you don't mind my pointing out the spelling error. Or is it a typo? 02b
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0[JCDenton"]Or does it mean that he just played the Samaritan in the 01b00metaforical02b00 meaning, that he 01u00offered help to someone / he helped someone02u00? 02br
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01b00It should be01i00 metaphorical.02i00 hope you don't mind my pointing out the spelling error. Or is it a typo? 02b
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Yoong Liat12cite12br
10[JCDenton"]Or does it mean that he just played the Samaritan in the 11b10metaforical12b10 meaning, that he 11u10offered help to someone / he helped someone12u10? 12br
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11b10It should be11i10 metaphorical.12i
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