"do one's best" meaning in English

See do one's best in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: does one's best [present, singular, third-person], doing one's best [participle, present], did one's best [past], done one's best [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|do<does,,did,done> one's best}} do one's best (third-person singular simple present does one's best, present participle doing one's best, simple past did one's best, past participle done one's best)
  1. To do as best one can. Synonyms: try one's best, do one's utmost, give it one's best shot Related terms: do one's worst
    Sense id: en-do_one's_best-en-verb-ti6ZHDfU Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Download JSON data for do one's best meaning in English (1.8kB)

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    },
    {
      "form": "did one's best",
      "tags": [
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    {
      "form": "done one's best",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1971 [1963 November 22], Lyndon Johnson, “The Beginning”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 17",
          "text": "This is a sad time for all people. We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed. For me, it is a deep personal tragedy. I know that the world shares the sorrow that Mrs. Kennedy and her family bear. I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help — and God's.",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "ref": "2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, page 58",
          "text": "Other stops retain no-frills brick-built shelters, although local community rail groups do their best to improve the ambience with planting, posters and artwork.",
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      "glosses": [
        "To do as best one can."
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      "id": "en-do_one's_best-en-verb-ti6ZHDfU",
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      "synonyms": [
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          "word": "try one's best"
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        {
          "word": "do one's utmost"
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        {
          "word": "give it one's best shot"
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      "form": "done one's best",
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          "ref": "1971 [1963 November 22], Lyndon Johnson, “The Beginning”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 17",
          "text": "This is a sad time for all people. We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed. For me, it is a deep personal tragedy. I know that the world shares the sorrow that Mrs. Kennedy and her family bear. I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help — and God's.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "2022 November 2, Paul Bigland, “New trains, old trains, and splendid scenery”, in RAIL, number 969, page 58",
          "text": "Other stops retain no-frills brick-built shelters, although local community rail groups do their best to improve the ambience with planting, posters and artwork.",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "word": "try one's best"
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          "word": "do one's utmost"
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        {
          "word": "give it one's best shot"
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      ]
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.