Word.ws English Dictionary

had the best of it

had the best of it is the simple past and past participle of have the best of it.

Meaning of have the best of it

Verb

have the best of it (third-person singular simple present has the best of it, present participle having the best of it, simple past and past participle had the best of it)

  1. To gain the advantage in a contest.

Questions about had the best of it

What is had the best of it the simple past and past participle of?
Had the best of it is the simple past and past participle of have the best of it.

Words near had the best of it in the dictionary

  1. had something over someone
  2. had something over with
  3. had something to show for something
  4. had the advantage of someone
  5. had the ball in one's court
  6. had the best of it
  7. had the biscuit
  8. had the blues
  9. had the cards
  10. had the cards in one's hands
  11. had the dirts with

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: had the best of it (page history and authors); have the best of it (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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Cite this entry: “had the best of it.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/had_the_best_of_it. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.