give it one's best shot
give it one's best shot verb: to make one's best effort or attempt; to try as hard as possible.
Verb
give it one's best shot (third-person singular simple present gives it one's best shot, present participle giving it one's best shot, simple past gave it one's best shot, past participle given it one's best shot)
- To make one's best effort or attempt; to try as hard as possible.
- Near-synonyms: give it the old college try; give one's all, go all out, pull out all the stops, do one's utmost, leave it all on the field, empty the tank
- I didn't win the contest, but I sure gave it my best shot.
- Synonyms:
- give it the old college try, give one's all, go all out, pull out all the stops, do one's utmost, leave it all on the field, empty the tank
Synonyms of give it one's best shot
- give it the old college try
- give one's all
- go all out
- pull out all the stops
- do one's utmost
- leave it all on the field
- empty the tank
Forms of give it one's best shot
| third-person singular present | gives it one's best shot |
|---|---|
| present participle | giving it one's best shot |
| past | gave it one's best shot |
| past participle | given it one's best shot |
| alternative form | take one's best shot |
Questions about give it one's best shot
- What does give it one's best shot mean?
- Give it one's best shot means to make one's best effort or attempt; to try as hard as possible.
- What part of speech is give it one's best shot?
- Give it one's best shot is a verb.
- What is the past tense of give it one's best shot?
- The past tense of give it one's best shot is gave it one's best shot.
Words near give it one's best shot in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: give it one's best shot (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-give it one's best shot.ogg.
Cite this entry: “give it one's best shot.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/give_it_one%27s_best_shot. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.