negging

American  

[neg-ing] / ˈnɛg ɪŋ /

noun

Slang.

1. the act of insulting someone or something with a backhanded compliment or with qualified approval, especially as a ploy to lower the self-esteem of a person or cheapen an object before showing romantic interest or making an offer.

   I will not tolerate gaslighting, negging, or other mind games in my love life.

---

Etymology

Origin of negging

First recorded in 1995–2000; gerund of neg ( def. ) (in the sense “to give negative feedback”)

Example Sentences

But he’s clever enough to hide it, negging his hero into giving him a backstage pass.

From Los Angeles Times

Like Jess tells the sports star who’s negging her, she may be messy by the world’s standards, “but actually I’m a work in progress, because I know who I am and I know what I want, and I’m listening to myself.”

From Salon

DeVido’s Emma Wheemer — a weary professor prone to negging people she admires and regretting it — feels like people I actually know.

From Washington Post

Or maybe Soper could just pop into the theater to perform a black box-style show based on her most recent album, “The Understanding of All Things,” in which she winningly dissects a male suitor’s negging in the Yeats poem “For Anne Gregory.”

From New York Times

As Agnes, Katigbak delivers a measured prattle, her negging neither as viperous nor as offhand as Albee’s text gives the character license to be.

From New York Times