play sth down
— phrasal verb with play /pleɪ/ verbDefinition
› to make something seem less important or less bad than it really is: Military spokespeople tried to play down the seriousness of the disaster.Exaggerating and playing downPraising and applauding
(Definition of play sth down from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus
© Cambridge University Press)
Browse related topics
You are looking at an entry to do with Exaggerating & playing down, but you might be interested in these topics from the Communication topic area:
- Admitting & confessing
- Announcing, informing & stating
- Answering & responding
- Assertions & asserting
- Codes & decoding
- Communicating & keeping in touch
- Debate & discussion
- Defining & explaining
- Describing & telling stories
- Gestures & gesturing
- Giving advice
- Giving orders & commands
- Informal talking & conversation
- Insults & abuse
- Interrupting & preventing from speaking
- Inviting & summoning
- Lecturing & addressing
- Making & accepting apologies
- Making & breaking promises & commitments
- Making appeals & requests
- Meaning & significance
- Meeting people
- Official meetings
- People who reveal secrets & tell tales
- Questioning people & asking questions in general
- Quoting & making references
- Remarks & remarking
- Revealing secrets & becoming known
- Saying & uttering
- Saying again
- Speakers & talkers
- Stressing & emphasizing
- Suggestions & proposals
- Suspecting & questioning
- Threats & warnings
- Topics & areas of interest
- Welcoming, greeting & greetings
- Written greetings
- Yes, no & not
Browse the Dictionary
Browse the Thesaurus
SMART Thesaurus
Synonyms and related words:
- alarmist adjective
- alarmist noun
- be stretching it idiom
- drama queen noun
- dramatize verb (MAKE EXCITING)
- exaggerate verb
- exaggeration noun
- grandiloquent adjective
- lay it on a bit thick idiom
- make little of sth idiom
- minimize verb
- OTT adjective
- over-egg the pudding idiom
- overrate verb
- overstatement noun
- pad sth out phrasal verb
- soft-pedal verb
- talk sth up phrasal verb
- underrate verb
- undersell verb (BE MODEST)
Topic:
Exaggerating & playing down
Our dictionaries
Word of the Day
Blog
Read our blog about how the English language behaves.
New Words
Find words and meanings that have just started to be used in English, and let us know what you think of them.
