(n.) A figure in which a harts or indelicate word or expression is softened; a way of describing an offensive thing by an inoffensive expression; a mild name for something disagreeable.
Example Sentences:
(1) 9.41pm BST Dodgers 0 - Cardinals 0, bottom of the 2nd The "demeaning euphemism for overweight" Matt Adams lines out to Adrian Gonzalez for the second out of the inning.
(2) General Bantz Craddock, who instituted the restraint chair and twice-daily intubation in 2006 , said that he designed it to make hunger-striking less " convenient " – a not terribly subtle euphemism for more painful – and that "pretty soon [after these practices were introduced]…they decided it wasn’t worth it."
(3) To avoid discussing the hunger strike and its rationale, they introduced a euphemism when asked about it: “long-term non-religious fasting”.
(4) I liked working there in the "people department" (a new euphemism for the women's section in the age of feminism), since it offered handy distractions from the horror of the blank page.
(5) Craving boldness is too often a euphemism for wishing Labour's predicament were something other than what it is; that there was a way to promise immediate improvement in everyone's lives without giving them money.
(6) She's both a "certain type of woman" (divorced single mothers must only be referred to in euphemism) and an object of desire.
(7) On Tuesday Khamenei used the expression "heroic leniency", which is being interpreted as a euphemism for a softer stance on foreign policy.
(8) And they gave us the word “euphemism” in the first place – “to use a favourable word in place of an inauspicious one”.
(9) In fact, the word 'torture' does not appear anywhere, nor even the preferred diplomatic euphemism, 'ill-treatment'.
(10) There were euphemisms (“an incident”, “an inappropriate action on my part”); there were vague and reassuring references to the woman (“she has accepted my apology”); and there were mind-your-own-business obfuscations (“a deeply personal business”).
(11) Political rhetoric now as in Orwell's day exploits not only euphemism ("austerity") but dysphemism ("skivers") and loaded metaphor ("fiscal cliff"): in our time, weaponised soundbites are deliberately engineered to smuggle the greatest amount of persuasion into the smallest space, to be virally replicated on rolling news.
(12) There is a serious risk that, sooner rather than later, “self-employment” will simply be a euphemism for regular work in which the employee is unprotected by minimum-wage legislation or any other workplace entitlements.
(13) The NSC will also be put in charge of a £1.3bn prosperity fund that will focus on issues like “improving the business climate” – a term too often used as a euphemism for the promotion of ideologically-driven policies like the privatisation of public services .
(14) Labelling Matters , a campaign set up by Compassion in World Farming and the RSPCA among others, is calling for labels that discard euphemisms in favour, for instance, of “intensive indoor” for pork from pigs that never go outside and “permanently housed” for dairy cows that never graze in fields.
(15) According to state media, Ji Jianye is being investigated for "severe violations of discipline and law" – a euphemism for embezzlement, bribery and other official abuses.
(16) But what this kind of legislation would do is promote “information-sharing” – a euphemism for cutting a giant hole in our privacy laws that allow companies like Sony or 20th Century Fox (or Google or Facebook) to hand over all sorts of our personal information to the government with no legal process whatsoever.
(17) Work was a widely used euphemism for killing during the genocide.
(18) "Dressing for pleasure" and "fun fashion" get a bad rap, especially for women in their middle age, as it is generally assumed that this is a euphemism for women dressing like clowns and not realising that, at their age (huff, huff), they should be wearing beige cashmere.
(19) Records of military and congressional investigations into the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre illustrate that "scalping" and other terms were euphemisms for Colorado Volunteers mutilating Cheyenne people and wearing and displaying genitalia, fetuses, and other "battle trophies".
(20) Apart from using the words "organic" as a euphemism for "traditional", his ideas seem to have matured little in the 25 years.
Understatement
Definition:
(n.) The act of understating, or the condition of being understated; that which is understated; a statement below the truth.
Example Sentences:
(1) RBS chief executive Ross McEwan apologised to consumers: “To say I’m angry would be an understatement.
(2) To say that the loss of BB King is devastating to the blues community is an understatement.
(3) With understatement, he added: "I don't feel comfortable."
(4) Heaton’s recollections are heavy on understatement.
(5) Since that strangely undeserved result in Madrid last November, PSG have gone on a run that makes convincing seem like an understatement.
(6) With some understatement, Thompson said: "We've weathered a series of lively storms and been through some trying as well as some very successful times together.
(7) In light of the opening episode, that seems like an understatement.
(8) That the act outraged public decency is an understatement.
(9) Unfortunately, we had to lower the number of people,” he says, in something of an understatement, adding that he used redeployment and natural turnover as much as possible.
(10) He starts by discussing the economic climate – saying that eurozone economic growth remains "weak" (an understatement), with fears over the crisis weighing on confidence and sentiment.
(11) Furthermore, perhaps calling Corbyn a “harsh critic” is an understatement in light of some of his statements.
(12) Courtesy the estate of Richard Hamilton That Hamilton was anti-capitalist is an understatement.
(13) That is an understatement because the expectations were high.
(14) To say that the 170-year history of the Co-op Group is complicated would be a howling understatement.
(15) Late-night tales: how a new crop of TV hosts is reinventing an old format Read more First, to say it’s a “hit” is an understatement – it’s a phenomenon.
(16) And to say Fifa has been dismayed by this burst of democratic dissent is an understatement.
(17) It will be difficult to keep them all happy.” That might be the understatement of the year.
(18) Volunteer complaints panel To say the public has little faith in the Independent Police Complaints Commission would be an understatement.
(19) With the organisation reeling from a string of corruption allegations against 10 of the 24-man executive committee, Jérôme Valcke , Fifa's secretary general, admitted with grim understatement that Fifa's reputation is: "Not at its highest."
(20) Fits like a brick To say that it is unclear quite how Beats and Apple would fit is be an understatement.