making a virtue of necessity
making a virtue of necessity is the present participle and gerund 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)
- 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...
- Indeed, because you are a banish'd man,
Questions about making a virtue of necessity
- What is making a virtue of necessity the present participle and gerund of?
- Making a virtue of necessity is the present participle and gerund of make a virtue of necessity.
Words near making a virtue of necessity in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: making 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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Cite this entry: “making a virtue of necessity.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/making_a_virtue_of_necessity. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.