Word.ws English Dictionary

'd best

'd best verb: had best.

Verb

'd best

  1. (auxiliary, colloquial, modal) Had best.
    • It's getting late. You'd best get on home.
    • “This career you'd best be ending, And your ways you'd best be mending"1874, “Rattletrap Rhymes, No. 47, The Blighted Clerk and the Cruel Millner”, in Judy, Or the London Serio-comic Journal, volume 15, page 199

Examples of 'd best in a sentence

  • She'd come over for supper this evening, and though she volunteered to help Robbie and his mother with the dishes, Lambright had said he'd best deliver her home, it being a school night.2013, Bret Anthony Johnston, “Encounters with Unexpected Animals”, in Elizabeth Strout, Heidi Pitlor, editors, The Best American Short...
  • “I guess,” said Horace at this point, “you'd best speak civil of Miss Strode.2020, Fergus Hume, The Wooden Hand, page 168:

Origin of 'd best

Shortening of had best.

Questions about 'd best

What does 'd best mean?
'd best means had best.
How do you use 'd best in a sentence?
She'd come over for supper this evening, and though she volunteered to help Robbie and his mother with the dishes, Lambright had said he'd best deliver her home, it being a school night.
What part of speech is 'd best?
'd best is a verb.

Words near 'd best in the dictionary

  1. 'cumbers
  2. 'cuz
  3. 'cuzzi
  4. 'cuzzis
  5. 'd
  6. 'd best
  7. 'd better
  8. 'deed
  9. 'dillo
  10. 'dillos
  11. 'dine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 'd best (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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