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 or something with faint praise
praise someone or something so unenthusiastically as to imply condemnation. This expression comes from the poet Alexander Pope's ‘Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot’ ( 1735 ): ‘Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer’.
1994 Canadian Defence Quarterly True there is the occasional condescending nod to those who served, but this frequently amounts to damning with faint praise.
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