at best

1. Under the most favorable circumstances, as in At best we'll be just one week behind schedule, or Cleaning out the attic is a tedious job at best. This idiom, formerly also put as at the best, today is most often used in situations that are actually far from ideal, as in the examples above. [First half of 1300s] For an antonym, see at worst.

Example Sentences

His experience with the New York Giants was poor, at best.

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The stock, which many considered dead money at best since last summer, is suddenly finding favor with investors.

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In your case, the expectation that you would receive your late husband’s share of their estate is, at best, unrealistic, and, at worst, unrealistic.

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"Golf in our country is difficult, at best," Besa wrote in the Philippines Business Mirror newspaper.

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The executor’s actions are bad manners, at best, or a willful abandoning of her fiduciary duty, at worst.

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Related Words

• at least 
• partially 
• slightly 
• somewhat