phrase

• Taking the most optimistic or favorable view.

  ‘signs of recovery are patchy at best’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The first views her at best as a mad, talentless manipulator and at worst as a murderer.’
  • ‘If you're a journalist for any period of time you get used to them and find them at best tedious and at worst laughable.’
  • ‘So far those attempts have been at worst disastrous and at best meaningless.’
  • ‘Britain's role in this affair has been at best ambiguous and at worst shameful.’
  • ‘I thought about it for a while, tried to remember the events of the evening, it was patchy at best.’
  • ‘It says allergies are increasingly common and can be at best inconvenient but at worst fatal.’
  • ‘Pretty much everyone looked at them as fascist scum at worst and pompous throwbacks at best.’
  • ‘Yet the support of the people of York is at best equivocal and at worst non-existent.’
  • ‘Some even say they are the heart of the problem and that their delivery is, at best, patchy.’
  • ‘There are areas of conventional science which are at best misguided and at worst fraudulent.’
  • ‘This is arrogance at best, but worst of all, you're hurting a poor old man's feelings.’
  • ‘It's a fun idea but the disparity between tracks results in a patchy experience at best.’
  • ‘All serious analysts of crime deride this as at best ignorant and at worst dishonest.’
  • ‘It was extraordinarily modest and at best misleading as to the First Lady's world view.’
  • ‘He made a strategic error and was at best guilty of political naivety, at worst of incompetence.’
  • ‘He said the problem was at best causing an obstruction and at worst could cause a serious accident.’
  • ‘The problem with this is that the effect of the war in this respect would be marginal, at best.’
  • ‘An assessment that has since been revealed as naive at best and base deception at worst.’
  • ‘People who left the church were seen at best as misguided and not spiritual enough.’
  • ‘At best it suggests there is a case for a proper study of such issues, perhaps a Panorama style investigation.’

  Synonyms

  only, merely, simply, but, nothing but, no more than