Word.ws English Dictionary

worse comes to worst

worse comes to worst is the alternative form of worst comes to worst.

Meaning of worst comes to worst

Adverb

worst comes to worst (superlative form only)

  1. (idiomatic) If a possible worst-case scenario actually occurs.
    • “Worst comes to worst, we'll make it to Cleveland and we can set down there and wait things out.” Gordon Rand nearly sneered, “Worst comes to worst? We'll crash and die, isn't that closer to the worst end of the possibility spectrum?2010, Cherie Priest, Dreadnought: A Novel of the Clockwork Century

Questions about worse comes to worst

What is worse comes to worst the alternative form of?
Worse comes to worst is the alternative form of worst comes to worst.

Words near worse comes to worst in the dictionary

  1. Worsdell
  2. worse
  3. worse and worse
  4. worse case scenario
  5. worse comes to worse
  6. worse comes to worst
  7. worse for liquor
  8. worse for ware
  9. worse for wear
  10. worse luck
  11. worse off

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: worse comes to worst (page history and authors); worst comes to worst (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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