soft pedal

soft pedal

That which dampens, diminishes, or downplays the importance or impact of something. Hyphenated if used before a noun as a modifier. It's unsurprising to me that the board decided to apply a soft pedal to our plans for expansion, giving the recent uncertainty in the market. The president's plan has been criticized as a soft-pedal approach to dealing with the potential of nuclear weapons in an already turbulent region.
See also: pedal, soft

soft-pedal (something)

To dampen, diminish, or downplay the importance or impact of something. An allusion to the dampening effects of a piano's soft pedal. You really need to soft-pedal your rhetoric if you want to win over enough mainstream voters to get re-elected. The university has been soft-pedaling its association with the controversial activist in recent months.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

soft pedal

Something that de-emphasizes, restrains, or plays down, as in The mayor put a soft pedal on this potentially explosive situation. This expression alludes to the una corda or soft pedal of the piano, which reduces the volume of the sound. It gave rise to the verb soft-pedal, meaning both "reduce the volume of" or "make less emphatic, downplay." [Early 1900s]
See also: pedal, soft
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • a light touch
  • a round robin
  • round robin
  • eleventh hour
  • heads I win, tails you lose
  • black market
  • first hand
  • a broth of a boy
  • broth
  • broth of a boy
References in periodicals archive
Flaying the Prosecution Department's comments further, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi said that the Nation had the right to know that why once the alleged terrorists were apprehended the N League government adopted a soft pedal approach in their prosecution enabling them to go Scot-free.
Pervez Elahi terms recent address of PML-N to party jurists as most cowardly act of Punjab Government
As opposed to shutting the piano lid or using the soft pedal, both of which diminish clarity in the piano, addressing voicing and pedaling issues will correct most balance concerns.
Finding your balance: techniques for pianists, their ensemble partners and their teachers
``We had to soft pedal so that we do not jeopardise the prospects of these players, who would return to their clubs at the end of the African Nations Cup.
Football: Allardyce finds sympathetic ear in Nigeria
The bad news for them is that Giles is in no mood to soft pedal. He says: "We have worked hard all year and now we're back in the Leinster decider.
Gaelic Gossip: Meath Trev's up to rub out Dubs
The soft pedal does not work and the keys keep falling off.
Hurricane Katrina: teachers helping teachers
While the intensification of attacks in Turkey could be traced to its newly reworked foreign policy where it establishes relations with Israel and soft pedals its tensions with Russia, Turkey may well be looking for a hand-holding from without.
Ankara's many fronts of attrition
Some said the Society's magazine soft pedals reality, painting a too-sweet picture of MS.
What's in a name?
Lash writes in Helen and teacher (Delta/Seymour Lawrence): "She soft pedaled her politics presumably at the request of the Foundation.
Ordinary people: why the disabled aren't so different