play down
verb
Forms plays down playing down played down
- verb (idiomatic, transitive) To make or attempt to make something seem less important, likely, or obvious. “The essay attempts to play down the role slavery had in the Civil War.”
Synonyms
de-emphasize downplay bagatellize banalize belittle cut down denigrate degrade deprecate derogate disparage dispraise lilliputianize make little of make nothing of minimize set at nought superficialize trivialize underestimate background
Antonyms
play up big up cut it fat exaggerate hyperbolize overcharge overdo overemphasize overstate stretch three-sheet
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “play down”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details