Litotes is a figure of speech, phrase that have different meaning than its literal meanings, that employs the opposite expressions' negative in order to express positive statements. In other words, <em>Litotes expresses the affirmative by saying the negative of the contrary.</em>
For instance the expression <em>“She is not as beauty as she used to be”</em> is a Litotes used to avoid saying <em>"She looks ugly now"</em>.