soft-pedal

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soft-pedal

a foot-operated lever on a piano, the left one of two, that either moves the whole action closer to the strings so that the hammers strike with less force or causes fewer of the strings to sound

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

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References in periodicals archive ?

However, it soft-pedals Diana's wildly contradictory nature.

'Diana' the movie: Not bad, not good

But Burns soft-pedals our real differences over Russian human rights and revanchism in their "near abroad." Almost amusingly he ignores our de facto termination of anti-missile defense programs in Poland and Czech Republic, instead ranging the globe to identify potential bilateral cooperation, particularly in economic affairs, from providing assistance in ending "wasteful" gas flaring to designating protected parklands on the coasts of Alaska and Chukotka.

U.S.-Russia Relations

David Cameron soft-pedals as the General Election approaches yet we've heard him salivating about slashing services - so you know what he'd do.