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HAD BEST
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Act in one's own or everybody's best interest
Example:
You will do well to arrive on time tomorrow!
Synonyms:
do well; had best
Classified under:
Verbs of being, having, spatial relations
Hypernyms (to "had best" is one way to...):
act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s INFINITIVE
Context examples:
Also to tell you, that you had best seek that home of yours, with all speed, and hide your head among those excellent people who are expecting you, and whom your money will console.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Dr. Van Helsing, I have not forgotten your mercy in poor Lucy's case to him who loved—she stopped with a flying blush, and changed her phrase—to him who had best right to give her peace.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Yes, we had best do so.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Well, if there is nothing to be learned here, we had best go inside.”
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Indeed, gentlemen, you had best go,” said mine host.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“But he’s all on fire to start, Colonel, so we had best go out if you are ready.”
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was by no means her object to have it believed that her sister was not a fine lady; perhaps there was want of spirit in the pretence of it;—and she was considering in what way she had best retract, when Mr. Weston went on.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
I thought I had best meet him on his own ground, so I said:—"Your clients, sir, are happy in having so resolute a guardian of their confidence. I am myself a professional man." Here I handed him my card.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
And here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a questionable one.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I had been discomposed enough before; but I was so much the more discomposed by this unexpected behaviour, that I was on the point of slinking off, to think how I had best proceed, when there came out of the house a lady with her handkerchief tied over her cap, and a pair of gardening gloves on her hands, wearing a gardening pocket like a toll-man's apron, and carrying a great knife.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
