Understatement for effect

• Understatement for rhetorical effect (especially when expressing an affirmative by negating its contrary)
• Toilets revolting; and that's an understatement
• 'Not unhappy,' e.g
• Literary understatement
• "Not too bad" for "very good"
• Figure of speech like "not unlike"
• Figure of speech that employs ironic understatement
• T S Eliot's quirky figure of speech

WordNet Word definitions in WordNet
n. understatement for rhetorical effect (especially when expressing an affirmative by negating its contrary); "saying `I was not a little upset' when you mean `I was very upset' is an example of litotes" [syn: meiosis ]