wilderness years
Time in shadow
A period when someone is out of power, out of favor, or sidelined from their main work—typically in politics or a career.
The phrase often implies eventual return: Churchill's wilderness years ended when he became Prime Minister again.
It can describe any fallow stretch before a comeback: After the band's wilderness years in the nineties, their reunion tour sold out instantly.
- exileBanishment from homeland
- political exileBanished for political reasons
- back benchLegislative seating for non-ministers
- wanderingTraveling with no fixed course
- desertTo leave behind completely
obscurity · political · redemption · Churchill · struggle · isolation · setback · limbo · hardship · reinvention · second act · solitude · drought · fallow · time out · outcast · reflection · soul searching
- biblical punishmentsplagues, stoning, banishment, pestilence, destruction
- BibleOld Testament, New Testament, Holy Scriptures, Adam, Moses
wilderness yearsreign
Sovereign's time in power
tenure · heyday · ascendancy · incumbency · administration
wilderness yearsglory days
Period of greatest success
heyday · golden years · prime · zenith · halcyon days
wilderness, years, wild, wilder, wildest, wildly, wildness, wilds, year