| Library / English Dictionary |
PLAY DOWN
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Understate the importance or quality of
Example:
he played down his royal ancestry
Synonyms:
background; downplay; play down
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "play down" is one way to...):
accent; accentuate; emphasise; emphasize; punctuate; stress (to stress, single out as important)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "play down"):
wave off (dismiss as insignificant)
soft-pedal (play down or obscure)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Antonym:
play up (move into the foreground to make more visible or prominent)
