Learn English – Word or phrase meaning to criticise or mock someone without mentioning their name

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Is there a word or phrase meaning to criticise or mock someone without mentioning their name?

On Twitter, people are able to search the site for references to their own name, so people often 'subtweet' other people – tweeting criticism of them without mentioning their name. Google's definition tells me that this only applies to Twitter.

This phenomenon is certainly older than Twitter. The oldest example that I can think of is the (probable) reference to Shakespeare in Robert Greene's 1592 book A Groat's Worth of Wit:

…for there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tygers hart wrapt in a Players hyde, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blanke verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes fac totum, is in his owne conceit the onely Shake-scene in a countrey.

Best Answer

There are plenty of words for insulting someone - but I think the type of speech where you are talking about someone (whether an insult, compliment etc.) without mentioning their name could be called allusive

From Oxford Dictionary:

Allusive adjective

Using or containing suggestion rather than explicit mention.

Example:

Toby wrote some allusive trash-talk about his ex-girlfriend on social media.

Another expression could be coded.

Coded adjective

1.1 Expressed in an indirect way.

'Coded' is paired with 'insult' pretty often. An example:

John delivered coded insults about his boss during an internal meeting.

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