Word.ws English Dictionary

at the best of times

UK/æt‿ðə ˈbɛst‿əv ˈtaɪmz/

at the best of times prepositional phrase: even under the most favourable conditions.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Even under the most favourable conditions.
    • When that gentleman came from the city, and was welcomed in the drawing-room by his daughters and the elegant Miss Wirt, they saw at once by his face—which was puffy, solemn, and yellow at the best of times—and by the scowl and twitching of his black eye-brows, that the heart within his large white...1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Sentimental and Otherwise”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 109
    • Monsieur Defarge sold a very thin wine at the best of times, but it would seem to have been an unusually thin wine that he sold at this time.1859, Charles Dickens, “Knitting”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book II (The Golden Thread), page 108

Examples of at the best of times in a sentence

  • But as she was not very quick and ready, at the best of times, in talking to strangers, she would beg me to put her in the right way, and to say where I wished her to begin.1859 November 26 – 1860 August 25, [William] Wilkie Collins, “Hartright’s Narrative”, in The Woman in White. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper &...
  • Bremmil was hard to hold at the best of times; but he was a beautiful husband until the baby died, and Mrs.1886 November 17, Rudyard Kipling, “Three and—an Extra”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co.; London: W....
  • His shoes were covered with mud, and he was looking very rough and touzled; but then he had never been a very smart man, the Badger, at the best of times.1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, “‘Like Summer Tempests Came His Tears’”, in The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s...
  • This is not unsatisfactory, but the change at Ballybrophy (a dismal station at the best of times) is not one that meets with the approval of the citizens of Clonmel.1957 May, Walter McGrath, “The Thurles-Clonmel Line, C.I.E.”, in Railway Magazine, page 320:

Words that rhyme with at the best of times

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about at the best of times

What does at the best of times mean?
At the best of times means even under the most favourable conditions.
How do you use at the best of times in a sentence?
But as she was not very quick and ready, at the best of times, in talking to strangers, she would beg me to put her in the right way, and to say where I wished her to begin.
What part of speech is at the best of times?
At the best of times is a prepositional phrase.
How do you pronounce at the best of times?
At the best of times is pronounced /æt‿ðə ˈbɛst‿əv ˈtaɪmz/ (UK).

Words near at the best of times in the dictionary

  1. at ten and two
  2. at that
  3. at that time
  4. at the bank
  5. at the best
  6. at the best of times
  7. at the bottom of
  8. at the bottom of the pile
  9. at the coal face
  10. at the corner
  11. at the cost of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: at the best of times (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-at the best of times.ogg.

Cite this entry: “at the best of times.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/at_the_best_of_times. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.