AT THE BEST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does at the best mean? 

• AT THE BEST (adverb)
  The adverb AT THE BEST has 1 sense:

1. under the best of conditions

  Familiarity information: AT THE BEST used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AT THE BEST (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Under the best of conditions

Synonyms:

at best; at the best

Context example:

at best we'll lose only the money

 Context examples 

At the best, in her most charitable frame of mind, she considered the statement of his views to be a caprice, an erratic and uncalled-for prank.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

No doubt the feat was easy to Mr. Utterson; for he was undemonstrative at the best, and even his friendship seemed to be founded in a similar catholicity of good-nature.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

At the best, that was all.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It is a village school: your scholars will be only poor girls—cottagers' children—at the best, farmers' daughters.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It is an insipid fruit at the best; but a good apricot is eatable, which none from my garden are.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Her face, too, was streaked with grime, and at the best she could never have been handsome, for she had the exact physical characteristics which Holmes had divined, with, in addition, a long and obstinate chin.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

White Fang, in the very nature of him, could never know anything about gods; at the best he could know only things that were beyond knowing—but the wonder and awe that he had of these man-animals in ways resembled what would be the wonder and awe of man at sight of some celestial creature, on a mountain top, hurling thunderbolts from either hand at an astonished world.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

At the best, they were necessary accessories.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I have a document here in his handwriting; it is between ourselves, for I scarce know what to do about it; it is an ugly business at the best.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

At the best you are a trifle puzzled and amused that this raw boy, crawling up out of the mire of the abyss, should pass judgment upon your class and call it vulgar.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)