Word.ws English Dictionary

made a virtue of necessity

made a virtue of necessity is the simple past and past participle of make a virtue of necessity.

Meaning of make a virtue of necessity

Verb

make a virtue of necessity (third-person singular simple present makes a virtue of necessity, present participle making a virtue of necessity, simple past and past participle made a virtue of necessity)

  1. (idiomatic) To make the best of a difficult situation; to recast or portray an action or situation in which one has no alternatives as an action or situation which was deliberately chosen on its merits.
    • Indeed, because you are a banish'd man,
      Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you:
      Are you content to be our general?
      To make a virtue of necessity
      And live, as we do, in this wilderness?c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

Questions about made a virtue of necessity

What is made a virtue of necessity the simple past and past participle of?
Made a virtue of necessity is the simple past and past participle of make a virtue of necessity.

Words near made a virtue of necessity in the dictionary

  1. made a stand
  2. made a statement
  3. made a stick for one's own back
  4. made a time
  5. made a Virginia fence
  6. made a virtue of necessity
  7. made a wrong turn at Albuquerque
  8. made after
  9. made against
  10. made all the difference
  11. made all the running

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: made a virtue of necessity (page history and authors); make a virtue of necessity (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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