play it low down—behave meanly or unfairly towards a person:
- If it weren’t playing it low down on the fellows that have been in it from the start, I’d like to enlist.
Note: The expression does not fully correlate in meaning with the phrase play it low—
1. (of music) play at a low volume:
- I am used to listening to music while exercising. And I play it low enough so I can hear outside sound….
2. = play it low down:
- But I’m not going to play it low on an old shipmate, and you shall have a fourth of whatever comes.
play it low-key —(also: keep it on the low down) do smth. without drawing much attention to it:
- For a company about to revolutionize the Internet, they liked to play it low key.