play up

Verb

• ingratiate oneself to; often with insincere behavior
  • She is playing up to the chairman
    

• move into the foreground to make more visible or prominent
  • The introduction highlighted the speaker's distinguished career in linguistics
    

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  cozy up , cotton up , shine up , sidle up , suck up , foreground , highlight , spotlight
• Antonyms: 
  background , play down , downplay