play down

verb

1. (tr, adverb) to make little or light of; minimize the importance of

Idioms and Phrases

Make little of, minimize the importance of, as in A skillful salesman plays down the drawbacks of the product and emphasizes its good features . [First half of 1900s]

play down to . Lower one's standards to meet the demands of someone, as in Some stand-up comics deliberately play down to the vulgar taste of their audiences . [Late 1800s]

Example Sentences

The government has sought to play down the scale of the violence.

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Veteran sales manager Anne Marie Sterling found that playing down her experience was a key to landing her current job at a solar-energy company.

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O'Neill, 73, has played down suggestions he could take up the job on a full-time basis - insisting he is just "keeping the seat warm".

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He was always more serious about school and sports than he was in music, he says, although he plays down his abilities in brutally physical rugby.

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In the younger generations, there is a desire to play down the struggles of the Boomer generation as somehow easy.

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Related Words

• belittle 
• gloss over 
• minimize 
• mute 
• soft pedal 
• soften 
• underplay