praise sandwich
n.— «He may not have cracked the whip this time. Rather he pulled on the reins. He came up with a “praise sandwich,” criticism buffered by layers of affirmation.» —“Distractions often obscured purpose of papal visit” by Julia Duin Houston Chronicle (Texas) Sept. 21, 1987. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
On a busy day in the emergency room, Alisa of Dallas, Texas, told an efficient colleague that she was really humming, meaning it as a compliment. Her colleague took offense, maintaining that humming meant “smelly.” Since the 18th...
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...