backhanded

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

That No 10 feels the need to criticise the Greens is a backhanded compliment that shows they matter.

From BBC • Jan. 31, 2026

Last Thanksgiving was full of backhanded compliments and pointed remarks.

From MarketWatch • Nov. 27, 2025

In a 1919 review of a pair of books by Theodore Dreiser, Virginia Woolf issued some exquisitely backhanded praise for the Indiana-born author, whose writing, she thought, stood out for its roughness and vitality.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 7, 2025

Lamar is worked up about liars, about folks doling out backhanded compliments, about other rappers with “old-ass flows” wasting space with empty rhymes.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 24, 2024

This outwardly aloof but blatantly defensive tone seemed to acknowledge, in its backhanded way, that his critics had struck a nerve.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis