Softpedaled; de-emphasized

Usage examples of downplayed.

Much as she had downplayed cause-and-effect when Brian suggested it, she might have been wrong.

Telling herself that, Celeste downplayed the concern of the dean of students, even the campus police.

She had downplayed it later, always pointed out that the kids had been maybe thirteen, fourteen years old and obviously trying their first mugging.

They also whined that author Robert Sherrill downplayed the wonderfulness of Dade County while dredging up all that nasty old stuff about cocaine cowboys, Mariel murders and racial tensions.