damn with faint praise

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damn with faint praise

1. (idiomatic) To provide praise that is minimal or inconsequential, implying that such praise is the best that could be said.
   • 1735, Alexander Pope, Epistle to Doctor Arbuthnot:

     Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,

     And without sneering teach the rest to sneer.

   • 1887, Donn Piatt, Memories of the Men who Saved the Union, page 296:

     The patronizing manner in which the hero of Nashville is damned with faint praise would amuse were it not so exasperating.

   • 1917, Lucy Maud Montgomery, "The Alpine Path: The Story Of My Career" in Everywoman's World:

     Four of them returned it with a cold, printed note of rejection; one of them “damned with faint praise.” They wrote that “Our readers report that they find some merit in your story, but not enough to warrant its acceptance.”

   • 2010 Nov. 16, Maureen Dowd, "The Way They Were," New York Times (retrieved 6 Oct 2013):

     And then, finally, when W. could avoid it no longer, he mentioned Vice, damning with faint praise: “Dick Cheney’s advice was consistent and strong.”

• backhanded compliment
• cherry-pick
• left-handed compliment