saving grace

noun

Definition of saving grace

: a redeeming quality or factor

Examples of saving grace in a Sentence

It's expensive, but the machine's saving grace is its ease of operation. One of her saving graces is a good sense of humor.

Recent Examples on the Web

Returning a third time as director, Genndy Tartakovsky lends his usual graphic savvy, providing a not-quite-saving grace. — Michael Mccullers, New York Times, "Review: Raising the Stakes With ‘Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation’," 12 July 2018 Luckily, conditions were placid enough for lending and investment banking fees to act as a saving grace. — Aaron Back, WSJ, "Big Banks Could Use More Excitement," 18 June 2018 Even as his trial gets underway Monday, Greitens also faces an impeachment vote as a special session begins Friday in the Missouri House of Representatives, where the fact that his own party enjoys a large majority may be no saving grace. — Marc Fisher, chicagotribune.com, "Trump, Schneiderman, Greitens and the changing shape of sex scandals," 13 May 2018 For XXXTentacion, streaming has been a saving grace: His legal drama -- including a litany of charges stemming from his 2016 domestic violence case -- has not stopped a large population of listeners from pressing play. — Carl Lamarre, Billboard, "Is Radio Starting to Embrace XXXTentacion?," 11 Apr. 2018 The only saving grace for the Bundeswehr is that with the wind-down of NATO support in Afghanistan, there's no immediate combat mission for the German military. — Sean Gallagher, Ars Technica, "Germany’s Typhoon problem: Only four fighters can be made combat ready," 15 May 2018 Time and geographic locale has been the saving grace for remains buried at Hockley Cemetery. — Vincent T. Davis, San Antonio Express-News, "Historian and UTSA archaeologists discover remains at forgotten African American burial site," 18 June 2018 The saving grace is the acting with all characters, from Ford (Anthony Hopkins) down to Clementine (Angela Sarafyan) committing. — William Lee, chicagotribune.com, "‘Westworld’ Episode 7 recap: 5 things to know about ‘Les Écorchés' and what lies beneath the surface," 4 June 2018 The saving grace is that the dollar so far hasn’t risen much relative to last year’s drop. — Greg Ip, WSJ, "In a Dollarized World, a Rising Dollar Spells Pain," 9 May 2018

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

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Dictionary Entries near saving grace

savings account

Statistics for saving grace

Last Updated

13 Oct 2018

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Time Traveler for saving grace

The first known use of saving grace was in 1798

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More Definitions for saving grace

saving grace

noun

English Language Learners Definition of saving grace

: a good quality that makes a bad or unpleasant person or thing better or more acceptable

See the full definition for saving grace in the English Language Learners Dictionary

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