The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 plus 6 letter word SILVER LINING
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
S
I
L
V
E
R
L
I
N
I
N
G
More clues leading to the result SILVER LINING
- Residual hope of award for second learner — in repeatedly, good
- What we must have to get wage — marginal brightness?
- Possible description of home in homage, a redeeming feature
- Cloud feature showing all is not lost?
- Bright side is, primarily nice-looking girls live in building
- Redeeming feature of change by Heather around home
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "marginal brightness" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case marginal brightness = silver lining.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.