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Faint praise

Reader question:

In this headline – Warne has faint praise for Gilly – what does "faint praise" mean?

My comments:

Praise is good. Faint praise is not. Something faint is weak (faint-hearted) and difficult to see (faint lines) or hear (a faint voice). Faint praises are weak and unconvincing. It shows that the person who is giving the praises is half-hearted. He's not sincere. He's unwilling to give an unreserved compliment.

Here's a story. It is said that at a funeral ceremony, the presiding priest, who did not know the deceased personally and obviously had done little homework, asked people from the congregation to stand up and sing praises for the dead. After long periods of silence, someone said: "His brother was worse!"

Ah well, that's pretty faint a praise, isn't it, for someone dead.

Sometimes paint praises are so tough on the ear that they sound more like a damning comment than something supportive. Hence the popular term – damn with faint praise.

In damning someone or something with faint praise, one shows that they are very bad by praising them very little. He may appear to be praising, but actually he is condemning them.

For instance an art critic may damn a painter with faint praise by saying, for example, that the picture looks so simple and innocent that any six-year-old can appreciate it – and perhaps draw it themselves.