"with the best will in the world" meaning in All languages combined

See with the best will in the world on Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase [English]

Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} with the best will in the world, {{en-PP}} with the best will in the world
  1. (UK) Even with an optimistic and charitable outlook; used to indicate the intractability of a problem. Tags: UK Translations (Translations): parhaalla tahdolla (kaan) (Finnish), avec la meilleure volonté du monde (French), avec toute la bonne volonté du monde (French)
    Sense id: en-with_the_best_will_in_the_world-en-prep_phrase-5zMNi32Z Categories (other): British English, English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for with the best will in the world meaning in All languages combined (2.0kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "with the best will in the world",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "with the best will in the world",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2009, Daniel Brumberg, Dina Shehata, Conflict, Identity, and Reform in the Muslim World",
          "text": "Through the 1980s and 1990s it did not train Persian speakers, and eventually those with language and country experience aged and retired, leaving a gap that, with the best will in the world, will take at least a decade to fill.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Jonathon Porritt, Capitalism as if the World Matters, page 4",
          "text": "With the best will in the world, I find it very difficult to explain how these official sources might have been subverted to falsify information, peddle untruths or generally seek to play games with the general public […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Even with an optimistic and charitable outlook; used to indicate the intractability of a problem."
      ],
      "id": "en-with_the_best_will_in_the_world-en-prep_phrase-5zMNi32Z",
      "links": [
        [
          "optimistic",
          "optimistic"
        ],
        [
          "charitable",
          "charitable"
        ],
        [
          "outlook",
          "outlook"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK) Even with an optimistic and charitable outlook; used to indicate the intractability of a problem."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "parhaalla tahdolla (kaan)"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "avec la meilleure volonté du monde"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "avec toute la bonne volonté du monde"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "with the best will in the world"
}
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "with the best will in the world",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "with the best will in the world",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English prepositional phrases",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2009, Daniel Brumberg, Dina Shehata, Conflict, Identity, and Reform in the Muslim World",
          "text": "Through the 1980s and 1990s it did not train Persian speakers, and eventually those with language and country experience aged and retired, leaving a gap that, with the best will in the world, will take at least a decade to fill.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Jonathon Porritt, Capitalism as if the World Matters, page 4",
          "text": "With the best will in the world, I find it very difficult to explain how these official sources might have been subverted to falsify information, peddle untruths or generally seek to play games with the general public […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Even with an optimistic and charitable outlook; used to indicate the intractability of a problem."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "optimistic",
          "optimistic"
        ],
        [
          "charitable",
          "charitable"
        ],
        [
          "outlook",
          "outlook"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK) Even with an optimistic and charitable outlook; used to indicate the intractability of a problem."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "parhaalla tahdolla (kaan)"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "avec la meilleure volonté du monde"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "avec toute la bonne volonté du monde"
    }
  ],
  "word": "with the best will in the world"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.