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Definition

To provide minimal critique, implying that the criticism is the worst that could be said of someone or something.

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Origins

Inversion of damn with faint praise.

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In Context

  • "The former accordingly greeted his book with warm approval, and the latter praised it with faint damns."
  • "But his emphasis on the novel’s interest in sex was a come-on – a way of praising it with faint damns."