play-up

(v) move into the foreground to make more visible or prominent
- The introduction highlighted the speaker's distinguished career in linguistics
foreground, highlight, spotlight,
(v) ingratiate oneself to; often with insincere behavior
- She is playing up to the chairman
cotton up, cozy up, shine up, sidle up, suck up,

foreground highlight spotlight cotton up cozy up shine up sidle up suck up

background play down downplay