LEFT-HANDED COMPLIMENT Definition & Meaning

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left-handed compliment

A compliment with two meanings, one of which is unflattering to the receiver: “The senator said that her opponent was quite competent for someone so inexperienced; you hear nothing but left-handed compliments in these debates.”

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, backhanded compliment . An insult in the guise of an expression of praise. For example, She said she liked my hair, but it turned out to be a left-handed compliment when she asked how long I'd been dyeing it . This expression uses left-handed in the sense of “questionable or doubtful,” a usage dating from about 1600.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

The bid to buff up Mr. Biden’s image while reclaiming “Let’s go, Brandon” from the right earned a left-handed compliment last weekend from conservative commentator Ben Shapiro.

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It may be a left-handed compliment to say that “Berlin, I Love You” features no real duds even if some entries are disappointing.

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Talk about a left-handed compliment.

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Melissa, take all this as a left-handed compliment: You were too good for them, you and a slew of sharp, professional people that they also got rid of.

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It’s a big claim on one hand and on the other, a left-handed compliment.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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