What is "downplay"

Usage examples of "downplay".

Bremer was so concerned by the tone of the aardwolf that he felt compelled to write an accompanying note at the end of the report, in which he downplayed its analysis of the worsening conditions in Iraq.

I had heard of Cabals, but my mother always downplayed their existence.

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.

Joel said jokingly, downplaying the intense terror he experienced on that fateful morning.

People had been soothed by White House assurances and by the tack adopted by the media, which were downplaying the comet and portraying those who took to the roads as cranks.

If the Enlightenment got lost in the interior and was thus stuck with nothing but exteriors, the influence of Augustine up to the Renaissance was on reaching the superior and downplaying, forgetting, ignoring the exteriors altogether.

The Church would produce many great philosophers (reason), and many great psychic and subtle mystics, but no matter how much these realizers tried to downplay the myths, no matter how much they allegorized them or as-iffed them or interpreted them away, there was always the one fundamental dogma that hung like a weight around their attempts to transcend, that crashed down on their shoulders and pinned them to the ground and never but never budged an inch: the utterly unique and nonreproducible realization of Jesus.

Before we go a single step further, please hear me say that the furthest thing from my mind is disrespecting men or downplaying their biblical roles in leadership.

This keeps Jack in the movie, but really downplays his relationship with Hal.

She is self-effacing and downplays all her accomplishments past the point of modesty.

So while the media gathered, the quiet Institute lawyers and spokesmen tried to downplay the entire incident, Alex got his arms-locker, and Tia her ethological kit as the price for their non-participation.

Perhaps Anderson's rapport and popularity with the Castle operators can explain why his sudden departure was quietly downplayed in company circles.