Word.ws English Dictionary

take one's best shot

take one's best shot is the alternative form of give it one's best shot.

Meaning of give it one's best shot

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)

  1. (idiomatic) 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

Forms of take one's best shot

third-person singular presenttakes one's best shot
present participletaking one's best shot
pasttook one's best shot
past participletaken one's best shot

Questions about take one's best shot

What is take one's best shot the alternative form of?
Take one's best shot is the alternative form of give it one's best shot.

Words near take one's best shot in the dictionary

  1. take one day at a time
  2. take one for the team
  3. take one up
  4. take one's ball and go home
  5. take one's bat and ball and go home
  6. take one's best shot
  7. take one's business elsewhere
  8. take one's chance
  9. take one's chances
  10. take one's courage in both hands
  11. take one's cue from

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take one's best shot (page history and authors); 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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