at the best of times

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /æt‿ðə ˈbɛst‿əv ˈtaɪmz/

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -aɪmz

at the best of times

1. (idiomatic) Even under the most favourable conditions.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Sentimental and Otherwise”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 109:

     When that gentleman came from the city, and was welcomed in the drawing-room by his daughters and the elegant Miss Wirt, they saw at once by his face—which was puffy, solemn, and yellow at the best of times—and by the scowl and twitching of his black eye-brows, that the heart within his large white waistcoat was disturbed and uneasy.

   • 1859, Charles Dickens, “Knitting”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book II (The Golden Thread), page 108:

     Monsieur Defarge sold a very thin wine at the best of times, but it would seem to have been an unusually thin wine that he sold at this time.

   • 1859 November 26 – 1860 August 25, [William] Wilkie Collins, “Hartright’s Narrative”, in The Woman in White. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, […], published 1860, →OCLC, part II, section VI, page 191:

     She could only reply that I was welcome to any thing she could tell me in return for the kindness I had shown to Anne. But as she was not very quick and ready, at the best of times, in talking to strangers, she would beg me to put her in the right way, and to say where I wished her to begin.

   • 1886 November 17, Rudyard Kipling, “Three and—an Extra”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co.; London: W. Thacker & Co., published 1888, →OCLC, page 8:

     In the case of the Cusack-Bremmils, this reaction did not set in till the third year after the wedding. Bremmil was hard to hold at the best of times; but he was a beautiful husband until the baby died, and Mrs. Bremmil wore black, and grew thin, and mourned as if the bottom of the Universe had fallen out.

   • 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, “‘Like Summer Tempests Came His Tears’”, in The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 261:

     His shoes were covered with mud, and he was looking very rough and touzled; but then he had never been a very smart man, the Badger, at the best of times.

   • 2023 October 4, Richard Foster, “New operator enters at number one”, in RAIL, number 993, page 33:

     Opening a new railway is no mean feat at the best of times, but the Elizabeth Line had its own challenges.

• at best
• ceteris paribus

• “at the best of times” under “best, adj., n.¹, and adv.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2022.
• “at the best of times, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.