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View synonyms for silver lining

silver lining

noun

  1. a sign of hope in an unfortunate or gloomy situation; a bright prospect:

    Every cloud has a silver lining.



silver lining

noun

  1. a comforting or hopeful aspect of an otherwise desperate or unhappy situation (esp in the phrase every cloud has a silver lining )


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Word History and Origins

Origin of silver lining1

First recorded in 1870–75

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Idioms and Phrases

An element of hope or a redeeming quality in an otherwise bad situation, as in The rally had a disappointing turnout, but the silver lining was that those who came pledged a great deal of money . This metaphoric term is a shortening of Every cloud has a silver lining , in turn derived from John Milton's Comus (1634): “A sable cloud turns forth its silver lining on the night.”

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Example Sentences

These are dark times for network TV, but experiments like Galavant are the silver lining.

The Air Force official noted that there is a silver lining that comes with the news that ISIS is become more difficult to target.

One silver lining for Obama may be on the issue of a new congressional authorization for war against ISIS.

But even if they fail at that, beating this quintet would make for a huge silver lining.

The only silver lining was a slight uptick in the number of churches.

Naturally disposed to see the silver lining of every cloud, he was unable to detect it now.

The silver lining of the Democratic cloud had not greatly disturbed Morton Bassett.

The silver lining was in softly glowing evidence, but he could not persuade himself that it was for him.

How true it is, as one of our English poets has remarked, that it is always darkest before the silver lining!

There was still half an hour to wait for lunch, but that cloud had now its proverbial silver lining.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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