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A statement that is restrained in ironic contrast to what might have been said
Answer for the clue "A statement that is restrained in ironic contrast to what might have been said ", 14 letters:
understatement
Word definitions for understatement in dictionaries
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Understatement \Un"der*state`ment\, n. The act of understating, or the condition of being understated; that which is understated; a statement below the truth.
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Word definitions in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
noun EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES ▪ To say I was surprised would be an understatement . EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS ▪ She was conscious of being a misfit, and that was a great understatement . ▪ That's the biggest understatement of all time! ▪ To say that his situation ...
Wikipedia
Word definitions in Wikipedia
Understatement is a form of speech or disclosure which contains an expression of lesser strength than what would be expected. It is the opposite of an embellishment . The rhetorical form of understatement is litotes in which understatement is used for emphasis ...
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1799, from under + statement .
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
n. a statement that is restrained in ironic contrast to what might have been said [ant: exaggeration ]
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. 1 a disclosure or statement that is less than complete 2 restraint or lack of emphasis, especially for ironic effect
Usage examples of understatement.
To say that the billionaire looked uninterested in her arrival would have been a gross understatement.
To say that the Augustin X had a way with words was an understatement.
When she was given leave to land on Beatus, and was brought down through the murk to a safe landing on a planetary grid, she discovered that the worst that Cromartie had to say of the place was understatement.
Given that your actions were directly responsible for the ascents of the last two chancellors, not to mention the installation of Emperor Kahless and the fall of the House of Duras, it is, if anything, an understatement.
Thinking of Gazar, Jennifer knew that was, if anything, an understatement.
Agent in Charge Davis had been meaning to have lunch with Peter Wohl, to chat, out of school, about these cases, even before he had learned, within the past forty-eight hours, that the Nelson case was not, in something of an understatement, over.
She conversationalized the written tag, reading it with warmth and friendly understatement, but all the while keeping her eye on her guests.
It is insisted that eight duels a week--four for each of the two days--is too low an average to draw a calculation from, but I will reckon from that basis, preferring an understatement to an overstatement of the case.
It was an understatement that almost made Olivia laugh at the simplicity of it.
Muth's collaborator, John Kuramoto, has used words with the same stark simplicity as Muth's own brushwork and the book is a subsequent delight of understatement, both visually and in terms of its text.
Set into small bezels in an oval pattern around the Ember were fifteen opaque black diamonds, cabochon cut, surely the zenith of understatement since they functioned as studs for the tiny integral computer terminal.
Morillo spoke with an admirable understatement, "that General Bautista is not kind to men who disobey his orders.
I thought you English were supposed to be the masters of understatement, and beating around the bush, and all that jazz.
Through the windows, he had seen sunlight streaking the Georgica Pond - the name a deliberate understatement typical of the local gentry, it being more the size of a lake - like pigment upon a painter's brush: there was a sense about the light of incipience, of colour that was not yet vivid, of an idea not yet formed.
I wouldn't want to be the one to tell you how to do your job, but understatement will jack up the drama.