Word.ws English Dictionary

damn with faint praise

damn with faint praise verb: to provide praise that is minimal or inconsequential, implying that such praise is the best that could be said.

Verb

damn with faint praise (third-person singular simple present damns with faint praise, present participle damning with faint praise, simple past and past participle damned with faint praise)

  1. (idiomatic) To provide praise that is minimal or inconsequential, implying that such praise is the best that could be said.
    • Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
      And without sneering teach the rest to sneer.1735, Alexander Pope, Epistle to Doctor Arbuthnot
    • The patronizing manner in which the hero of Nashville is damned with faint praise would amuse were it not so exasperating.1887, Donn Piatt, Memories of the Men who Saved the Union, page 296

Forms of damn with faint praise

third-person singular presentdamns with faint praise
present participledamning with faint praise
past participledamned with faint praise
pastdamned with faint praise

Origin of damn with faint praise

From a poem by Alexander Pope.

Questions about damn with faint praise

What does damn with faint praise mean?
Damn with faint praise means to provide praise that is minimal or inconsequential, implying that such praise is the best that could be said.
What part of speech is damn with faint praise?
Damn with faint praise is a verb.
What is the past tense of damn with faint praise?
The past tense of damn with faint praise is damned with faint praise.

Words near damn with faint praise in the dictionary

  1. damn the torpedoes
  2. damn tootin'
  3. damn tooting
  4. damn up
  5. damn well
  6. damn with faint praise
  7. damn Yankee
  8. damn Yankees
  9. damn you
  10. damn you all to hell
  11. damn your eyes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: damn with faint praise (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-damn with faint praise.ogg.

Cite this entry: “damn with faint praise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/damn_with_faint_praise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.