redeeming feature

Idioms  

1. 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.”

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

redeeming feature

Its redeeming feature was supposed to be re-establishing freedom of navigation in the Strait while nuclear talks proceeded.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026

Its only redeeming feature is that the words are so tiny I can’t read them.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 31, 2020

The news quickly trended on social media, with tributes saluting the "most famous tree in Australian education" as "majestic" and the university's "only redeeming feature".

From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2016

Our critic says its main redeeming feature is Denzel Washington, “a great star, which means that he has that ineluctable what’s-it for selling the goods no matter what their sell-by date.”

From New York Times ● Sep. 23, 2016

Long years of observation of the young fellow's character had convinced this shrewd student of boy nature that here was a case well-nigh without redeeming feature.

From From School to Battle-field A Story of the War Days by King, Charles