Word.ws English Dictionary

do one's darnedest

do one's darnedest verb: to do one's utmost; to make every effort or to try every possible approach or way.

Verb

do one's darnedest (third-person singular simple present does one's darnedest, present participle doing one's darnedest, simple past did one's darnedest, past participle done one's darnedest)

  1. (euphemistic, idiomatic) To do one's utmost; to make every effort or to try every possible approach or way.
    • I don't think he'll succeed, but he's doing his darnedest to build a working spaceship.

Forms of do one's darnedest

third-person singular presentdoes one's darnedest
present participledoing one's darnedest
pastdid one's darnedest
past participledone one's darnedest

Questions about do one's darnedest

What does do one's darnedest mean?
Do one's darnedest means to do one's utmost; to make every effort or to try every possible approach or way.
What part of speech is do one's darnedest?
Do one's darnedest is a verb.
What is the past tense of do one's darnedest?
The past tense of do one's darnedest is did one's darnedest.

Words near do one's darnedest in the dictionary

  1. do one's best
  2. do one's bit
  3. do one's block
  4. do one's business
  5. do one's damnedest
  6. do one's darnedest
  7. do one's duty
  8. do one's ease
  9. do one's easement
  10. do one's homework
  11. do one's job

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: do one's darnedest (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-do one's darnedest.ogg.

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