Meanings
- idiomaticEven under the most favourable conditions.
Monsieur Defarge sold a very thin wine at the best of times, but it would seem to have been an unusually thin wine that he sold at this time.
1859, Charles Dickens, “Knitting”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book II (The Golden Thread), page 1085 more examples
When that gentleman came from the city, and was welcomed in the drawing-room by his daughters and the elegant Miss Wirt, they saw at once by his face—which was puffy, solemn, and yellow at the best of times—and by the scowl and twitching of his black eye-brows, that the heart within his large white waistcoat was disturbed and uneasy.
1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Sentimental and Otherwise”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 109She could only reply that I was welcome to any thing she could tell me in return for the kindness I had shown to Anne. But as she was not very quick and ready, at the best of times, in talking to strangers, she would beg me to put her in the right way, and to say where I wished her to begin.
1859 November 26 – 1860 August 25, [William] Wilkie Collins, “Hartright’s Narrative”, in The Woman in White. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1860, →OCLC, part II, section VI, page 191In the case of the Cusack-Bremmils, this reaction did not set in till the third year after the wedding. Bremmil was hard to hold at the best of times; but he was a beautiful husband until the baby died, and Mrs. Bremmil wore black, and grew thin, and mourned as if the bottom of the Universe had fallen out.
1886 November 17, Rudyard Kipling, “Three and—an Extra”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co.; London: W. Thacker & Co., published 1888, →OCLC, page 8His shoes were covered with mud, and he was looking very rough and touzled; but then he had never been a very smart man, the Badger, at the best of times.
1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, “‘Like Summer Tempests Came His Tears’”, in The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 261This is not unsatisfactory, but the change at Ballybrophy (a dismal station at the best of times) is not one that meets with the approval of the citizens of Clonmel.
1957 May 28, Walter McGrath, “The Thurles-Clonmel Line, C.I.E.”, in Railway Magazine, page 320
Translations
Finnish parhaimmillaankin
- parhaimmillaankineven under the most favourable conditions
French au mieux
- au mieuxeven under the most favourable conditions
Spanish en el mejor de los casos
- en el mejor de los casoseven under the most favourable conditions
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with at the best of times
All rhymes →Cite this entry
at the best of times. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/at%20the%20best%20of%20times
“at the best of times.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/at%20the%20best%20of%20times. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “at the best of times,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/at%20the%20best%20of%20times.
Source: at the best of times on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.