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Glite Dictionary
to turn pain into lemonade

to turn pain into lemonade

8.9
Make something good from pain or a bad situation
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : sacar provecho de lo malo
  • After losing her job, she tried to turn pain into lemonade by starting her own business.

Examples

  • He used his difficult childhood as inspiration and managed to turn pain into lemonade.

  • The artist's music is proof that you can turn pain into lemonade with creativity and courage.

  • Don't forget to turn pain into lemonade!

  • She always turns pain into lemonade after a breakup.

  • After losing her job, she tried to turn pain into lemonade by starting her own business.

  • He used his difficult childhood as inspiration to turn pain into lemonade and became a motivational speaker.

  • The artist's latest album proves that you can turn pain into lemonade by expressing your emotions through creativity.

Synonyms

to look on the bright side
vsto turn pain into lemonade
  • Informal
30 3.7

Try to find something positive in a bad situation

creates something useful or beneficial from negative events rather than just noticing positives
to make lemonade out of lemons
vsto turn pain into lemonade
  • Informal
1 5.0

Turn a bad situation into something good

focuses on making benefits from painful situations rather than just making best of things

How Positive

to turn pain into lemonade
  • Informal
8.9
to make it
  • Informal
311 3.4
to look on the bright side
  • Informal
30 3.7
to get through
332 2.8
to cope with
150 2.9

Surface Forms

turn pain into lemonade infinitive
turned pain into lemonade past
turned pain into lemonade past participle
turning pain into lemonade present participle
turns pain into lemonade third person singular

Morphology

turn + pain + into + lemonade

The verb 'turn' + preposition 'into' clearly signals a change of state and the literal constituents ('pain' vs. 'lemonade') allow a learner to infer a shift from something bad to something pleasant, so part of the meaning is compositional. However, the use of 'lemonade' as a culturally grounded positive metaphor (from the proverb 'turn lemons into lemonade') is figurative and may not be fully predictable without exposure, so the expression is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Turn pain into lemonade comes from the popular saying 'when life gives you lemons, make lemonade'; imagine taking something sour or like pain and turning it into sweet lemonade, so it means 'to make something good or useful from a bad or painful situation'.