at worst
35
3.6
- idiom
:
en el peor de los casos
- At worst, the project could be delayed by six months.
- at best and at worst
- at best and at worst
- evil at worst
We have months at best and weeks at worst.
- We have months at best and weeks at worst.
- And it the the results of it are, you know, at best comical, at at worst tragic.
- And if you're not thoughtful, like, it's like, at best really quirky, at worst, completely ridiculous.
- At best that kind of friendship is a risky proposition, and at worst it's almost a form of self harm.
- Couldn't these paper towns potentially lead to a complete confusion at best and outright danger at worst?
- This marketing makes Andy's language choices and card comparison choices a little bit mismatched, maybe disingenuous at worst.
- The dwelling that people put on themselves around efficiency is overwhelming to me and ludicrous at best and dangerous at worst.
- So she's in this marriage that is, you know, at best loveless and at worst hateful.
Examples
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And at worst, this situation makes it impossible to prosecute Trump.
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First, many of these claims are at best controversial and at worst flatly false.
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The war in Ukraine, which many expected to last months at worst, is closing in on its third year.
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I mean, at worst, it's a neutral effect.
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At worst, he was a worthy enemy.
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At worst, that places this incident firmly within the realm of an industrial accident.
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In short, what we did was seen as at best useless and at worst sinister.
Academic text (2008) -
We have juggled all these challenges and have gotten through with, at worst, an average recession.
Academic text (1993) -
At best, this manifests a certain sort of insensitivity; at worst, it indicates racism.
Academic text (1990) -
Being Hardy's widow was at best a mixed blessing, at worst a thankless task.
Academic text (1990)
Synonyms
4
3.9
If things go as badly as they can, this is what will happen
Antonyms
How Bad
Surface Forms
Morphology
at + worst
The phrase combines the preposition 'at' (indicating a state or condition) with 'worst' (the superlative meaning 'most negative'), so its meaning 'in the least favorable case' is directly derivable from the constituents. This is a common, compositional adverbial pattern in English (and has clear parallels in many languages), so a B1 learner who knows the individual words will readily understand it.
Etymology
The phrase at worst may come from the idea of a list of possible results from best to worst, where you point to the bottom item. So saying at worst means 'in the worst case' or 'in the least favorable situation'.