AT BEST • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of At best

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/æt bɛst/ Listen

noun

Best n. Utmost; highest endeavor or state; most nearly perfect thing, or being, or action; as, to do one's best; to the best of our ability.

At best, in the utmost degree or extent applicable to the case; under the most favorable circumstances; as, life is at best very short.

For best, finally. (Obs.) "Those constitutions... are now established for best, and not to be mended."

To get the best of, to gain an advantage over, whether fairly or unfairly.

To make the best of.

(a)

To improve to the utmost; to use or dispose of to the greatest advantage. "Let there be freedom to carry their commodities where they can make the best of them."

(b)

To reduce to the least possible inconvenience; as, to make the best of ill fortune or a bad bargain.

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Etymology of 'At best'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"At best" Quotes from Famous Books

... At best his chances in the all-too-probable emergency were far from brilliant. Yet one might better perish trying, however hopelessly, than passively submit to ...

— The False Faces • Vance, Louis Joseph

... Russian Empress in the quarrel too. He affirms that both intended to demolish him—but I think I would not accuse both till at least I had humbled one. We are much pleased with this expedition, but at best it ensures the duration of the war—and I wish we don't attend more to that on the Continent than to that on our element, especially as we are discouraged a little on the latter. You reproach me for not telling you more of Byng- ...

— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2 • Horace Walpole

... of the sort. I do not say that collapse is impossible. I do say that it would be extremely undesirable from the point of view of almost everybody in Russia. Collapse of the present Government would mean at best a reproduction of the circumstances of 1917, with the difference that no intervention from without would be necessary to stimulate indiscriminate slaughter within. I say "at best" because I think it more likely that collapse would be followed by a period of actual ...

— The Crisis in Russia - 1920 • Arthur Ransome

... Now, my men, keep in shelter of yonder bluff; for under cover of it only can we approach the den unperceived. We are now within three miles of the place." The men received the intelligence with enthusiasm, and put their horses at best speed. ...

— Annette, The Metis Spy • Joseph Edmund Collins

... ranges, each piece breaking or filling up the interstice of the two beneath it, the whole forming a connic figure about 10 feet high with a small apperture in one side which answers as a door. leaves bark and straw are sometimes thrown over the work to make it more complete, but at best it affords a very imperfect shelter particularly without straw which is the state in which we ...

— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al

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