to look on the bright side
30
3.7
- idiom
- Informal
- Even though the situation is tough, try to look on the bright side and focus on what you can learn.
- always look on the bright side
- try to look on the bright side
- let's look on the bright side
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Watch on YouTubeUse your faculty of will to make yourself do things this way or look on the bright side or anything like that.
- Use your faculty of will to make yourself do things this way or look on the bright side or anything like that.
- Try to look on the bright side. How do you remember this? Stay on the bright side,
- You keep me always looking on the bright side of things and in the present and and grateful for what I do have.
- And what you could do for someone with depression is listen and accept and recognize, but don't say, hey, let's look on the bright side.
- Or I know you're dreading the holidays this year since you stopped talking to your mom, but look on the bright side, you don't need to deal with your family this year.
- You wrote Always Look on the Bright Side of Life and it is.
- President, even if the memo doesn't prove that the FBI is out to get you, look on the bright side after you release it, I think they might be.
Examples
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Therefore, managers owe it to their people to look on the bright side when possible.
Blog text (3) -
Stay positive and always look on the bright side of life.
Blog text (21) -
But perhaps we ought to all look on the bright side.
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Come on, look on the bright side.
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I mean, look on the bright side, right?
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I suggest you look on the bright side.
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I always look on the bright side.
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So we're trying to look on the bright side.
Fiction book (2000) -
You should look on the bright side of things, Corporal.
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Look on the bright side.
Synonyms
34
3.2
To have a hopeful, confident attitude in hard times
17
4.1
To be thankful for the good things in your life
1
4.1
To focus on the good parts of a situation instead of the bad
1
5.0
Turn a bad situation into something good
Make something good from pain or a bad situation
Antonyms
How Positive
Surface Forms
Morphology
look + on + the + bright + side
The meaning 'to try to find positive aspects' is directly derivable from the constituents: 'look' (direct attention) + 'on the bright side' (the bright/positive aspect), so the overall sense follows normal compositional patterns. This construction has clear cross-linguistic parallels (e.g., 'ver el lado positivo') and uses transparent vocabulary and syntax, making it readily understandable to a B1 learner who knows the words.
Etymology
The idiom look on the bright side comes from the image of turning toward the sunny, well-lit side of a place so you can see more clearly. That is why to look toward the bright side means 'to try to find the good things' in a bad situation.