safety net

Definition of safety net

: something that provides security against misfortune or difficulty

Examples of safety net in a Sentence

The program provides a safety net for people who have lost their jobs.

Recent Examples on the Web In the face of a nonexistent safety net and bleak future prospects, the F.I.R.E movement and other individualized paths to financial mastery offer a specific brand of fantasy. — Katie Mcdonough, The New Republic, "The Long Plot to Escape From Work," 4 Jan. 2021 Nearly nine months into a pandemic that has brought unrelenting loss and put the holes in our social safety net on full display, roughly 200 people paused their mornings to watch the service live through their phones and computer screens. — Julia Wick, Los Angeles Times, "As COVID-19 restrictions keep public away, Los Angeles mourns unclaimed dead in annual event," 3 Dec. 2020 When the pandemic hit, the school decided not to expect much help, and formed its own safety net. — Zach Helfand, The New Yorker, "The Brooklyn School Suing the C.D.C.," 30 Nov. 2020 That will safeguard the integrity of our social safety net while making our communities safer. — Jon Coss, Fortune, "How the dark web became a haven for unemployment insurance fraud," 25 Nov. 2020 And the third is that there are a lot of holes in our safety net. — The Atlantic, "Listen: The Virus Is Peaking, but Help Is Going Away," 26 Oct. 2020 The real issue is the absolute lack of safety net or social structure that have led Americans to think that opening schools is the only salvation. — Monica Hesse, Washington Post, "The pandemic didn’t create working moms’ struggle. But it made it impossible to ignore.," 8 July 2020 This week’s release of President Donald Trump’s budget, with its draconian cuts to the social safety net and unrealistic projections of future growth, has again shined a light on our fiscal challenges. — Antonio Weiss, The Denver Post, "Weiss: Here’s one tax every candidate ought to back," 14 Feb. 2020 Most are of its own making, including unfulfillable public pension promises and a vast social safety net beyond the capacity of California’s workers to fund. — Hank Adler, WSJ, "A California Plan to Chase Away the Rich, Then Keep Stalking Them," 18 Dec. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'safety net.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

16 Jan 2021

Cite this Entry

“Safety net.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/safety%20net. Accessed 18 Jan. 2021.

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