Idiom
praise with faint damns
Meaning
To provide minimal critique, implying that the criticism is the worst that could be said of someone or something.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The critic praised the movie with faint damns.”
“He did not like the book, so he praised it with faint damns to avoid a direct argument.”
“By describing the performance as merely adequate, the reviewer praised it with faint damns, effectively signaling his true disappointment to the audience.”
Examples
simple
“The critic praised the movie with faint damns.”
contextual
“He did not like the book, so he praised it with faint damns to avoid a direct argument.”
complex
“By describing the performance as merely adequate, the reviewer praised it with faint damns, effectively signaling his true disappointment to the audience.”
Origin
Inversion of damn with faint praise.
Key words
Related idioms
- Updated