damn (someone or something) with faint praise
To criticize or undermine someone or something by showing a lack of enthusiasm. I needed you to support me in there! The committee probably won't approve of my research project now that you've damned it with faint praise. Who knows what will happen? I thought that candidate would be a great fit for the job, but Harold damned her with faint praise to the boss. How dare those fools down at the newspaper damn my invention with faint praise? They wouldn't recognize a revolutionary new tool if it bit 'em!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
damn someone/something with faint praise
If you damn someone or something with faint praise, you praise them, but in such a weak way that it is obvious that you do not really have a high opinion of them. In recent months he has consistently damned the government with faint praise. Note: People occasionally use by instead of with. He has been damned by faint praise throughout his career even though he has scored all manner of important goals. Note: You can also just talk about faint praise. Mr Robinson called him `the most obvious candidate'. That sounds like faint praise. Note: This expression was first used by the English writer Alexander Pope in his `Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot' (1735): `Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer.'
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012