silver lining

noun

Updated on: 12 Apr 2018

Definition of silver lining

: a consoling or hopeful prospect

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Examples of silver lining in a Sentence

If there's a silver lining to losing my job, it's that I'll now be able to go to school full-time and finish my degree earlier.

Recent Examples of silver lining from the Web

The silver lining here is that the number of accounts Twitter removed in the back half of 2017 was down more than 27 percent from the last six months of 2016.

— kurt wagner, Recode, "Twitter has suspended more than 1.1 million terrorism-related accounts since late 2015," 5 Apr. 2018
However, there remains a silver lining for the Eagles as the likes of Wilfried Zaha and Ruben Loftus-Cheek returned from injury as Palace fell to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Liverpool.

— SI.com, "Crystal Palace Suffer Yet Another Setback With Striker Set for Scan Following Injury Blow," 2 Apr. 2018
That's the silver lining for anyone who finds himself in the unenviable position of being compared to the onetime Democratic vice-presidential nominee, as President Trump does now.

— callum borchers, Washington Post, "A John Edwards comparison that isn’t all bad for Trump," 26 Mar. 2018
The silver lining for investors is that Navarro claims the intent of the administration’s tough stance on trade is simply to ‘encourage our trading partners to lower’ their tariffs and barriers to trade.

— joseph n. distefano, Philly.com, "Trump trade hawk Peter Navarro seeks to curb foreign power in U.S. economy," 8 Mar. 2018
The silver lining of this very bizarre sequence is Annaliese.

— aurelie corinthios, PEOPLE.com, "'Desperation' on The Bachelor: Women Race to Kiss Arie Luyendyk Jr. After Surprise Eliminations," 15 Jan. 2018
But there's a silver lining here: The Fosters isn't totally over.

— noelle devoe, Seventeen, "The Fosters" is Ending After Season 5, But Two of Your Faves are Getting a Spinoff!," 3 Jan. 2018
Still, the silver lining in Kentucky's season ending shy of the Final Four could be a roster not faced with many of the same pitfalls created by extreme youth next season.

— jon hale, The Courier-Journal, "Which Kentucky basketball players will declare for the 2018 NBA draft?," 23 Mar. 2018
The only silver lining to this situation is that, by all accounts, Gigi and Zayn's breakup was friendly.

— noelle devoe, Seventeen, "Gigi Hadid Misses Her Sister Bella Now More Than Ever After Her Breakup With Zayn," 20 Mar. 2018

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