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.

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Example Sentences

The internal investigation did not determine whether employees had intentionally planned to make light of the uprising.

From Barron's • May 26, 2026

Che was made to make light of molestation claims against Michael Jackson.

From Los Angeles Times • May 17, 2026

Not to make light of any teen’s emotional injury, but will dating sites now be held liable for broken hearts?

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 4, 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

The older man, though, did not laugh or make light of Shin’s ignorance.

From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden

Related Words

• curtail
• decrease
• diminish
• downplay
• lessen
• play down
• reduce
• trivialize
• underestimate