play down
Britishverb
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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]
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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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ngumoha will turn 18 next week and has preferred to play down the left throughout his youth career but failed to have an impact on the other side.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
But they also publicly play down Jordan’s cooperation with the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
But that is to play down the remarkable life and career of Fontaine - who, if he were playing in the modern day, would have represented a different country.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
China sought to play down the event as unexceptional, even as some countries in the region were quick to criticize it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
Such narratives do not play down the epistemological problem of moving from the specific to the universal; they accentuate it.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
