safety net

noun

1. a large net rigged between a person, as a trapeze performer, and the ground as protection in a fall.
2. something that provides a margin of protection or security:

   the safety net of federal credit for financial institutions.

safety net

noun

1. a net used in a circus to catch high-wire and trapeze artistes if they fall
2. any means of protection from hardship or loss, such as insurance

Other Words From

• safety-net adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of safety net¹

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

Your people will give it their best when they know a company is there as a safety net to support them through these really difficult times.

From Digiday

All these highlight the precarious nature of small scale farming and the need for better protections and safety nets to help mitigate the risk of trying to earn a livelihood.

From Quartz

All of this presents an opportunity to fix a fundamental part of our safety net, one that’s been ignored for decades, according to Newman of the Altarum Institute.

From MIT Technology Review

She’s on the front lines, doing her best to scrape by, with no social safety net to bail her out.

From Vox

The good news is that we know how to design that sort of safety net.

From Fortune

They are only here to reap the rewards of the American safety net (such as it is) and thereby raise your taxes.

From The Daily Beast

But as it takes away the safety net, their corpses wind up in fishing nets.

From The Daily Beast

In my mind, the parameters you can set and monitor in the best way is to do it in the safety net of a competition.

From The Daily Beast

However, such crypto-libertarianism is countered by a very strong belief in the need for government to provide a safety net.

From The Daily Beast

The establishment of a social safety net is the most profoundly religious action a government can take.

From The Daily Beast

The entitlement programs that make up our safety net for the truly needy have worthy goals and many deserving recipients.

From Project Gutenberg

Yet, right or wrong, hasn't the war stretched a little the safety net of our democracy?

From Project Gutenberg

Only there was this difference—there was no safety net below him.

From Project Gutenberg