the.com/understatement

Saying a little so the listener feels the lot.

means Deliberately describing something as less significant than it really is, usually for irony, modesty, or effect.

from Plain English carpentry: under (below) plus statement, first nailed together in the 1800s to name speech that aims deliberately low.

British sportNational pastime: calling a disaster a bit awkward
Named figureRhetoricians dubbed it litotes, the not-bad cousin
Power moveRestraint hits harder than any exclamation point
the.com/
the.com · generated