at best

English

Alternative forms

• at the best

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Prepositional phrase

at best

1. In the most favorable of conditions, especially in a situation that is otherwise negative.
   • 2011 October 1, Phil Dawkes, “Sunderland 2 - 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     Steve Bruce's side have swung from highs to lows in what has been at best a wildly inconsistent start to the season. They experienced a microcosm of this within the opening 45 minutes at the Stadium of Light.

   • 2021 August 6, “Get Vaccinated. Get Masked. It’s the Only Way Out of This.”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     The power of federal officials to issue a national vaccine mandate is questionable at best.

   • 2023 September 6, Philip Haigh, “£30 billion plan to transform the rail network in Ireland”, in RAIL, number 991, page 25:

     It recalls the business case for Scotland's reopening of the Borders Railway to Tweedbank, that British Rail closed in 1969. The review says the business case for this was at best borderline, but goes on to say that the case greatly underestimated passenger demand and that the railway Scotland built has capped its capacity.

Antonyms

• at worst

Translations

in the most favorable of conditions

• Catalan: com a molt (ca), com a màxim (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 充其量 (zh) (chōngqíliàng)

• Czech: přinejlepším (cs)
• Esperanto: plejbonokaze
• Finnish: parhaimmillaan
• French: au mieux (fr)
• German: bestenfalls (de), günstigenfalls, im günstigsten Fall, allenfalls (de), höchstens (de)
• Hungarian: a legjobb esetben, legfeljebb (hu)
• Icelandic: þegar best lætur
• Italian: nel migliore dei casi, al massimo, quanto meno
• Japanese: 精々 (せいぜい, seizei)
• Polish: w najlepszym wypadku (pl), w najlepszym razie (pl)
• Russian: в лу́чшем слу́чае (ru) (v lúčšem slúčaje)
• Spanish: a lo mejor (es), como mucho, en el mejor de los casos, a lo más, a lo sumo, como máximo

Anagrams

• A/B test, Bastet, Battes, bettas