playing down
Making it smaller
Playing down is minimizing the importance or severity of something: The company played down the safety risks.
You play down bad news, embarrassing facts, or anything you'd rather people not focus on.
The opposite is playing up.
Also appears as the noun downplay: His downplay of the scandal fooled no one.
- understateExpress with restraint
- minimizingReducing to smallest extent
- belittlingExpressing contempt or dismissiveness
- soft-pedalDiminish stated significance
- denigratingCriticizing to damage reputation
euphemize · trivialize · no big deal · gloss over · papering over · sweeping under the rug · pooh-pooh · deflect · sugarcoat · mitigation · water under the bridge · subdue · whitewash · soft sell · devaluation · dismissing · diminish · evasive
- downplayingminimizing, trivializing, belittling, soft-pedal, dismissing
- dismissive responseswhatever, dismissal, meh, shrug, disregard
- silencingsilencing, muting, hushing, shushing, quieting
playing downplaying up
Emphasizing excessively
exaggerating · overstating · overplaying · blowing up · magnifying
playing downhighlighting
Emphasizing key parts
emphasizing · spotlighting · calling attention to · foregrounding · accentuating
play, down, playing, played, plays, downplay, downplayed, downplays, downplaying