Her expression is demure, but there’s more than a hint of beauty.
What is it intended to convey? Is she beautiful, or not so beautiful?
Any help would be appreciated.
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3She's fairly, quite beautiful. macmillandictionary.com: more than a hint of something (=a lot of something): The profession welcomed the recommendations with more than a hint of relief. It's nearly always used as a form of "deliberate understatement". – FumbleFingers Reinstate Monica May 14 '18 at 12:39
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@FumbleFingers, but what does the example mean? – Math May 14 '18 at 12:44
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3It means what I said. She's fairly beautiful. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so one mans "somewhat" beautiful could be another man's stunningly beautiful. All we can be sure of is she's definitely not "plain" or "ugly" in the writer's opinion. – FumbleFingers Reinstate Monica May 14 '18 at 12:51
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1@FumbleFingers, it’s very kind of you to give such a detailed comment. But I’m sorry that I didn’t mean benny’s example, I actually meant your example which I didn’t quiet understand. – Math May 14 '18 at 12:55
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Have a look at What is the difference between “some” and “little”, and note particularly that understatement is very common in English. So if I say I can speak a little French, for example, you should probably assume I can hold a conversation in French perfectly well, not that I just know how to order a couple of beers in a bar. – FumbleFingers Reinstate Monica May 14 '18 at 13:00
