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at worst
In the least favorable circumstance; under the most difficult conditions. For example, Convicted of taking a bribe, the official believed that at worst he would be sentenced to a few months in prison . [1500s]
In the least favorable view or supposition, as in No harm done; at the worst I'll copy the tax return again . Chaucer used this sense in Troilus and Cressida: “For at the worst, it may yet short our way.” [Late 1300s] For the antonym, see at best .
Idioms and Phrases
Also, at the worst .Example Sentences
The results were disheartening at best, and at worst, frightening.
The men’s lawyers believe they have a case for a failure to disclose medical records and, at worst, may have had glimpses of a cover-up locked in the bowels of military archives.
“To suggest that enjoying a concert aligns you with every past action of the artist is, at best, simplistic and, at worst, intellectually dishonest,” she said.
Councils have never truly loved the idea of a service which could eat into their responsibility for staffing and services, and their submissions were at best non-committal, at worst openly hostile.
"Till then, all the other steps by corporates, like offering period leave or partnering with mental health firms will remain supplementary at best and symbolic at worst," he said.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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