praise with faint damns

English

Etymology

Inversion of damn with faint praise.

Verb

praise with faint damns (third-person singular simple present praises with faint damns, present participle praising with faint damns, simple past and past participle praised with faint damns)

1. (idiomatic, transitive) To provide minimal critique, implying that the criticism is the worst that could be said of someone or something.
   • 1885, Henry Augustin Beers, Nathaniel Parker Willis, page 194:

     The former accordingly greeted his book with warm approval, and the latter praised it with faint damns.

   • 2015 February 21, Blake Morrison, “Blake Morrison on Anthony Burgess the critic — ‘he aspired to know everything’”, in The Guardian, retrieved 3 March 2024:

     But his emphasis on the novel’s interest in sex was a come-on – a way of praising it with faint damns.