After England’s defeat yesterday at the hands of India for the ICC Champions Trophy, the Times reports (£) Alastair Cook as saying:
It is a tough pill to swallow… We are a bit devastated. We got close and from the position we got ourselves into we would back ourselves to win more times tha[n] we lose. As a batting unit we will be looking at ourselves.
I don’t think you can be a bit devastated, since ‘devastated’ in its very nature is more ‘a lot’ than ‘a bit’ sort of thing. But my question to those who know is: is there a name for this particular linguistic combination?