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Synonyms

make light of

Idioms  

  1. Also, make little of. Treat as unimportant, as in He made light of his allergies, or She made little of the fact that she'd won. The first term, which uses light in the sense of “trivial,” was first recorded in William Tyndale's 1526 Bible translation (Matthew 22:5), in the parable of the wedding feast, where the invited guests reject the king's invitation: “They made light of it and went their ways.” The variant dates from the early 1800s. For an antonym, see make much of.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Kaufman stressed: "The defence does not disrespect the soul of any deceased person, nor does it make light of the loss of life."

From Barron's • Feb. 26, 2026

"It's obviously in bad taste, but if Linden wants to make light of the situation, that's down to her."

From BBC • Jan. 29, 2026

X owner Elon Musk and other executives at xAI—the artificial intelligence company that now owns X Corporation—appeared to make light of the matter before acknowledging that they needed to “tighten our gaurdrails.”

From Slate • Jan. 6, 2026

Mr. Hegseth has tried to make light of this incident, posting a meme of a turtle from a children’s book firing a weapon at a vessel.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 16, 2025

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make light of what you’ve been through.”

From "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.