身边朋友新买件衣服，本来是想夸一下的，可说出口的话却怎么听都不是在夸赞。像这种无心的表达或者有个别有心为之的明褒暗讽的评价在英语里叫做complisult。

Complisult is a backhanded compliment. When one makes a statement to another that is part compliment, part insult, we call the statement a complisult. (Source: Urbandictionary.com)

Complisult指暗含贬损意味的赞扬。如果一个人对另一个人的评价一半是赞扬，一半是贬损，那么这种评价就叫complisult，我们称之为“明褒暗讽的评价”。

Let’s take a look at the following two examples of complisult:

我们来看看以下两个complisult的例子：

That's such a nice dress. It does wonders for your figure.

那条裙子真不错。让你的身材看上去好了不少。

You are not the smartest person I know, but you are not the dumbest either.

你不是我认识的最聪明的人，但你也不是最笨的一个。