playdown

or play-down

[ pley-doun ]

nounChiefly Canadian.
  1. a play-off.

Origin of playdown

1
First recorded in 1935–40; play + down1

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use playdown in a sentence

  • You will find there A fitter hand than mine, to reach her frets, And play down diddle to her.Petro.

  • Nobody has lived in it for years and years but I used to play down here when I was a little girl and had time to play.

    The Comings of Cousin Ann | Emma Speed Sampson
  • It won't do, with your political record, to try to play down these stories of a gigantic criminal conspiracy.

    Time Crime | H. Beam Piper
  • The mere suggestion of the thing is sufficient to cause a cold shudder to play down the spinal column of John Bull.

    East of Suez | Frederic Courtland Penfield
  • It pointed up the very thing he was trying to play down, and raised a general laugh.

    The Edge of the Knife | Henry Beam Piper

British Dictionary definitions for play down

play down

verb
  1. (tr, adverb) to make little or light of; minimize the importance of

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with playdown

playdown

Make little of, minimize the importance of, as in A skillful salesman plays down the drawbacks of the product and emphasizes its good features. [First half of 1900s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.