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.”

---

Example Sentences

They offered not one redeeming feature as they slumped again, the visiting fans suffering as they made their way home from a freezing west London night.

From BBC • Oct. 25, 2025

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

From Washington Post • Dec. 31, 2020

The microphone is good One redeeming feature that the Earphones HD have is a high-quality microphone, which I was told during testing made me sound very clear and easily understandable.

From The Verge • Feb. 8, 2018

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

But, in the case of Mary E. Surratt, not a single redeeming feature relieves “The deep damnation of her taking off.”

From The Judicial Murder of Mary E. Surratt by DeWitt, David Miller