play sth down
— phrasal verb with play uk/pleɪ/us/pleɪ/verb
to make something seem less important or less bad than it really is:
Military spokespeople tried to play down the seriousness of the disaster.
More examples
- Ministers played down the prospect of a spring election.
- Although I'm excited, I'm playing down my promotion so that the others don't get jealous.
- It's probably wise to play down your connection with the Communist party.
- The documentary played down the break-up of his first marriage.
- A Pentagon spokesman was trying to play down the significance of the incident.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Exaggerating & playing down
- blow sth out of proportion idiom
- drama queen
- dramatize
- exaggeration
- lard
- lay
- make a meal (out) of sth idiom
- make much of sth idiom
- make sth of sth
- meal
- over-egg the pudding idiom
- overboard
- overplay
- overstatement
- pad
- pudding
- stretch
- stretch the truth idiom
- talk sth down
- understatement
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