Word.ws English Dictionary

doing one's worst

doing one's worst is the present participle and gerund of do one's worst.

Meaning of do one's worst

Verb

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

  1. inflict the worst possible damage one can
    • “Thumbs!” ordered Mr Big. “Do your worst with the boy!” Frank looked on in terror as the man bent back his humongous Thumbs, ready to cause damage. The henchman pressed them hard into the boy’s ears. Frank felt like his brain was going to burst. “ARGH!” he screamed.2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN

Questions about doing one's worst

What is doing one's worst the present participle and gerund of?
Doing one's worst is the present participle and gerund of do one's worst.

Words near doing one's worst in the dictionary

  1. doing one's part
  2. doing one's stuff
  3. doing one's sums
  4. doing one's thing
  5. doing one's utmost
  6. doing one's worst
  7. doing oneself a mischief
  8. doing or dying
  9. doing out
  10. doing out of
  11. doing over

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: doing one's worst (page history and authors); do one's worst (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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