try as one may

alternative try as one might

1. However hard one tries; despite one's best efforts.

   It was an extraordinary thing that, try as we might, we could not finish our pipes at the same time.

   1890, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “English-grown Tobacco”, in My Lady Nicotine: A Study in Smoke, Boston, Mass.: Joseph Knight Company, published 1896, →OCLC, page 184

   2 more examples

   'It could afford to be materialistic,' said Birkin, 'because it had the power to be something other--which we haven't. We are materialistic because we haven't the power to be anything else--try as we may, we can't bring off anything but materialism: mechanism, the very soul of materialism.'

   1920 November 9, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter XXVI, in Women in Love, New York, N.Y.: Privately printed [by Thomas Seltzer] for subscribers only, →OCLC

   They didn't persist and quickly drove off, as Sam and Tom tried to ignore them and dismiss the entire experience. But try as they may, they weren't able to forget.

   2013, Michael Myers, Doctors’ Marriages: A Look at the Problems and Their Solutions