Word.ws English Dictionary

try as one might

try as one might is the alternative form of try as one may.

Meaning of try as one may

Phrase

try as one may

  1. However hard one tries; despite one's best efforts.
    • It was an extraordinary thing that, try as we might, we could not finish our pipes at the same time.1890, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “English-grown Tobacco”, in My Lady Nicotine: A Study in Smoke, Boston, Mass.: Joseph Knight Company, published 1896, →OCLC, page 184

Questions about try as one might

What is try as one might the alternative form of?
Try as one might is the alternative form of try as one may.

Words near try as one might in the dictionary

  1. trvth nvke
  2. trvth nvkes
  3. TRX
  4. try
  5. try as one may
  6. try as one might
  7. try cock
  8. try cocks
  9. try conclusions
  10. try for size
  11. try house

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: try as one might (page history and authors); try as one may (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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