English · Idiom Historical

to damn with faint praise

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To praise in such measured terms as to deprive the praise of any real value.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Khen ngợi một cách nửa vời để làm mất giá trị của lời khen

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “to damn with faint praise” mean?

To praise in such measured terms as to deprive the praise of any real value.

Is “to damn with faint praise” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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