"damn with faint praise" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "damns with faint praise",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "damning with faint praise",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "damned with faint praise",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "damned with faint praise",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "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)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1735, Alexander Pope, Epistle to Doctor Arbuthnot",
          "text": "Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,\nAnd without sneering teach the rest to sneer.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1887, Donn Piatt, Memories of the Men who Saved the Union, page 296",
          "text": "The patronizing manner in which the hero of Nashville is damned with faint praise would amuse were it not so exasperating.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1917, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “The Alpine Path: The Story Of My Career”, in Everywoman's World",
          "text": "Four of them returned it with a cold, printed note of rejection; one of them “damned with faint praise.” They wrote that “Our readers report that they find some merit in your story, but not enough to warrant its acceptance.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 November 16, Maureen Dowd, “The Way They Were”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-10-06",
          "text": "And then, finally, when W. could avoid it no longer, he mentioned Vice, damning with faint praise: “Dick Cheney’s advice was consistent and strong.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To provide praise that is minimal or inconsequential, implying that such praise is the best that could be said."
      ],
      "id": "en-damn_with_faint_praise-en-verb-zHPgNdiT",
      "links": [
        [
          "minimal",
          "minimal"
        ],
        [
          "inconsequential",
          "inconsequential"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To provide praise that is minimal or inconsequential, implying that such praise is the best that could be said."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "backhanded compliment"
        },
        {
          "word": "cherry-pick"
        },
        {
          "word": "left-handed compliment"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-damn with faint praise.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/13/En-au-damn_with_faint_praise.ogg/En-au-damn_with_faint_praise.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/En-au-damn_with_faint_praise.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "damn with faint praise"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "damns with faint praise",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "damning with faint praise",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "damned with faint praise",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "damned with faint praise",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "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)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "backhanded compliment"
    },
    {
      "word": "cherry-pick"
    },
    {
      "word": "left-handed compliment"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1735, Alexander Pope, Epistle to Doctor Arbuthnot",
          "text": "Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,\nAnd without sneering teach the rest to sneer.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1887, Donn Piatt, Memories of the Men who Saved the Union, page 296",
          "text": "The patronizing manner in which the hero of Nashville is damned with faint praise would amuse were it not so exasperating.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1917, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “The Alpine Path: The Story Of My Career”, in Everywoman's World",
          "text": "Four of them returned it with a cold, printed note of rejection; one of them “damned with faint praise.” They wrote that “Our readers report that they find some merit in your story, but not enough to warrant its acceptance.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 November 16, Maureen Dowd, “The Way They Were”, in New York Times, retrieved 2013-10-06",
          "text": "And then, finally, when W. could avoid it no longer, he mentioned Vice, damning with faint praise: “Dick Cheney’s advice was consistent and strong.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To provide praise that is minimal or inconsequential, implying that such praise is the best that could be said."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "minimal",
          "minimal"
        ],
        [
          "inconsequential",
          "inconsequential"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To provide praise that is minimal or inconsequential, implying that such praise is the best that could be said."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-damn with faint praise.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/13/En-au-damn_with_faint_praise.ogg/En-au-damn_with_faint_praise.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/En-au-damn_with_faint_praise.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "damn with faint praise"
}