Word.ws English Dictionary

have the best of it

have the best of it verb: to gain the advantage in a contest.

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.

Forms of have the best of it

third-person singular presenthas the best of it
present participlehaving the best of it
past participlehad the best of it
pasthad the best of it

Questions about have the best of it

What does have the best of it mean?
Have the best of it means to gain the advantage in a contest.
What part of speech is have the best of it?
Have the best of it is a verb.
What is the past tense of have the best of it?
The past tense of have the best of it is had the best of it.

Words near have the best of it in the dictionary

  1. have something to show for something
  2. have swallowed a dictionary
  3. have that shit on
  4. have the advantage of someone
  5. have the ball in one's court
  6. have the best of it
  7. have the biscuit
  8. have the black ox tread on one's foot
  9. have the blues
  10. have the cards
  11. have the cards in one's hands

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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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