playing up
Making bigger deal
Playing up means emphasizing or exaggerating something to make it seem more important or prominent: She played up her experience on the résumé.
In British usage, playing up also describes misbehaving children or malfunctioning equipment: The car's been playing up again.
A person can play up to someone by flattering them for advantage.
- misbehavingConducting oneself improperly
- exaggeratingOverstating for effect
- mischievousPlayfully causing trouble
- overactingExcessive theatrical performance
- glitchingShowing intermittent digital faults
on the fritz · fuss · taunting · emoting · spotlighting · breaking down · failing · hamming · pestering · accentuating · tantrum · throwing a fit · making a scene · game · boasting · flaunting · caricaturing · parodying
- exaggerationhyperbole, overstatement, exaggeration, magnification, amplification
- actingacting, act, performing, playacting, actor
playing upplaying down
Minimizing importance of something
downplaying · minimizing · underplaying · understating · de-emphasizing
playing upbehaving
Acting in acceptable ways
cooperating · minding · obeying · settling down · calming down
playing upignoring
Deliberately not noticing
snubbing · disregarding · cold-shouldering · slighting · brushing off
play, playing, plays, played, player, players, playful, playfully, playfulness