Idiom
left-handed compliment
Meaning
A complimentary remark which is ambiguous or ineptly worded, so that it may be interpreted as having an unflattering or dismissive sense.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“That was a left-handed compliment about my new haircut.”
“She told me I looked great for my age, but it felt like a left-handed compliment.”
“His remark about her sudden promotion was clearly a left-handed compliment, implying she only succeeded because of her connections.”
Examples
simple
“That was a left-handed compliment about my new haircut.”
contextual
“She told me I looked great for my age, but it felt like a left-handed compliment.”
complex
“His remark about her sudden promotion was clearly a left-handed compliment, implying she only succeeded because of her connections.”
Key words
Related idioms
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