background vs play up

background

verb
  • To gather and provide background information (on). 

  • To put in a position that is not prominent. 

adj
  • Less important or less noticeable in a scene or system. 

noun
  • One's social heritage, or previous life; what one did in the past. 

  • Information relevant to the current situation about past events; history. 

  • The image or color over which a computer's desktop items are shown (e.g. icons or application windows). 

  • A part of the picture that depicts scenery to the rear or behind the main subject; context. 

  • A less important feature of scenery (as opposed to foreground). 

  • A type of activity on a computer that is not normally visible to the user. 

play up

verb
  • To make or attempt to make something appear more important, likely, or obvious; to showcase or highlight. 

  • To play more vigorously. 

  • To be unfaithful to a lover; to cheat; used with on. 

  • To misbehave. 

How often have the words background and play up occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )