redeeming feature
A good quality or aspect that makes up for other drawbacks, as in The house isn't very attractive, but the garden is the redeeming feature. This idiom, first recorded in 1827, uses redeem in the sense of “compensate.”
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
How to use redeeming feature in a sentence
His love for his mother is the redeeming feature in his character.
Kalevala, Volume I (of 2) | AnonymousBesides, his fidelity to Corinne is a redeeming feature, perhaps the only redeeming feature of his character.
The Island Mystery | George A. BirminghamThese difficulties of Philips were the first redeeming feature in the situation.
Ten Tudor Statesmen | Arthur D. InnesThere is only one redeeming feature in the right honorable gentleman's policy, and that is its colossal and monumental failure.
The only redeeming feature about the whole orgie was the absence of quarrelling.
The Log of a Sea-Waif | Frank T. Bullen
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