Quietly step up the laudations (6)
I believe the answer is:
praise
'quietly step' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to communication as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'up the laudations' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'up' could be 'is' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'is' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for praise that I've seen before include "flatter" , "Honour" , "Commendation" , "Congratulate" , "Worship, glorify" .)