damn with faint praise
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To criticize indirectly by giving insincere or lukewarm praise
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
phê bình gián tiếp bằng cách khen ngợi không thành thật
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: condemn with weak approval
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The reviewer damned the movie with faint praise, saying it was 'interesting'
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “damn with faint praise” mean?
To criticize indirectly by giving insincere or lukewarm praise Literally: condemn with weak approval
Is “damn with faint praise” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.