flicker of hope
1
4.1
- noun
:
destello de esperanza
- After weeks of setbacks, there was finally a flicker of hope that things might improve.
Examples
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In the smallest of things I see the flicker of hope.
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Can you allow yourself just that flicker of hope, you know, for the briefest moment?
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Smallest flicker of hope. #TANNER#
Fiction book (1995) -
I wanted to chronicle the origins of that faint flicker of hope that would someday burn out a cancerous regime, the humble beginnings of a mass movement of young people that would eventually change our country for the better.
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From the get-go, it didn't look very promising that these AFC East foes would light up the scoreboard, although a nifty special teams moment early on gave some brief flicker of hope.
Blog text (25) -
As she watched the sunrise, a flicker of hope ignited within her, promising a better day ahead.
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Despite the challenges, he held onto that flicker of hope that his dreams could still come true.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A feeling that something good will happen
Antonyms
How Hopeful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a brief or slight indication that hope still exists' is directly derivable from combining 'flicker' (a short, unsteady flash) with 'hope' via the relational word 'of' — the light/metaphor maps straightforwardly to a brief sign. This conventional metaphor (a quick flash indicating something small or fleeting) is cross-linguistically common and follows normal compositional patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the parts should be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
The phrase flicker of hope comes from the image of a small flicker of light, like a weak candle flame that almost goes out. That tiny light shows there is still some 'hope', so the phrase means a brief or small sign that hope remains.