downplay definitions

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: represent as less significant or important [syn: understate, minimize, minimise, downplay] [ant: amplify, exaggerate, hyperbolise, hyperbolize, magnify, overdraw, overstate]
2: understate the importance or quality of; "he played down his royal ancestry" [syn: background, play down, downplay] [ant: foreground, highlight, play up, spotlight]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb Date: 1954 play down, de-emphasize

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. play down; minimize the importance of.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(downplays, downplaying, downplayed) If you downplay a fact or feature, you try to make people think that it is less important or serious than it really is. The government is trying to downplay the violence. = play down VERB: V n