make light of

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

make light of (third-person singular simple present makes light of, present participle making light of, simple past and past participle made light of)

1. (idiomatic) To regard without due seriousness; to joke about.

   I wish you wouldn't make light of the matter, when it obviously means a great deal to him.

   • 2011 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC‎^[1]:

     It was also a satisfying night for England coach Capello. Not only did he have a vital victory to celebrate, but his team selection was fully justified as Cahill gave an almost flawless performance in defence and Scott Parker's display made light of the surprising exclusion of Frank Lampard.

   • 2023 March 9, Angela Giuffrida, “Revealed: Italian leaders tried to protect country’s image at start of pandemic”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Messages accessed as part of inquiry show politicians also appeared to make light of cases[.]

Synonyms

• take lightly

Translations

regard without due seriousness

• Arabic: اِسْتَخَفَّ (istaḵaffa), اِسْتَهَانَ (istahāna)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 輕視／轻视 (zh) (qīngshì), 無視／无视 (zh) (wúshì)

• Danish: tage let på
• Faroese: fara lættliga um
• Finnish: suhtautua kevyesti
• French: prendre à la légère
• German: nicht allzu ernst nehmen, sich nicht viel machen aus, auf die leichte Schulter nehmen (de)
• Italian: infischiarsene, minimizzare (it)
• Japanese: 侮る (ja) (anadoru), 舐める (ja) (nameru)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ta lett på

• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: bimbać (pl) impf (colloquial)
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: minimizar (es), restar importancia, frivolizar (es)
• Swedish: ta lätt på

See also

• gloss over