soft pedal

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soft ped·al • n. a pedal on a piano that can be pressed to make the tone softer. See also una corda.• v. (soft-ped·al) [tr.] Mus. play with the soft pedal down. ∎  refrain from emphasizing the more unpleasant aspects of; play down: the administration's decision to soft-pedal the missile program.

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