do one's best

Idioms  

1. Also,. Perform as well as one can, do the utmost possible, as in I'm doing my best to balance this statement, or She did her level best to pass the course, or He did his damnedest to get done in time. The first term dates from the 16th century, but the addition of level, here meaning “very,” occurred only in the mid-1800s; the variant dates from the late 1800s.

---

Example Sentences

Johnny’s tentative dip into family life artfully captures the tedium, terror and confounding ecstasy of parenthood, but it more eloquently conveys the pain and discovery involved in simply trying to do one’s best.

From Washington Post • Nov. 22, 2021

Striving to do one’s best is laudable and certainly a part of military training and leadership, but there is a lot more to military leadership than doing one’s best.

From MSNBC • Dec. 12, 2015

But in Judaism, there are two conditions for repentance: one must go in genuine contrition to the person sinned against, and one must do one's best to compensate for the wrong done.

From Time Magazine Archive

It seems to me that one of the first characteristics which one ought to do one's best to cast out of one's life is that of formidableness.

From Joyous Gard by Benson, Arthur Christopher

Well," he said, "the fear of getting fired is a pretty strong incentive to do one's best, but I suppose when one gets up against big things there is something else.

From The Girl from Keller's by Bindloss, Harold

Related Words

• aspire
• bid for
• strive
• take pains
• undertake