with the best will in the world

English

Prepositional phrase

with the best will in the world

1. (UK) Even with an optimistic and charitable outlook; used to indicate the intractability of a problem.
   • 2009, Daniel Brumberg, Dina Shehata, Conflict, Identity, and Reform in the Muslim World:

     Through the 1980s and 1990s it did not train Persian speakers, and eventually those with language and country experience aged and retired, leaving a gap that, with the best will in the world, will take at least a decade to fill.

   • 2012, Jonathon Porritt, Capitalism as if the World Matters, page 4:

     With the best will in the world, I find it very difficult to explain how these official sources might have been subverted to falsify information, peddle untruths or generally seek to play games with the general public […]

Translations

Translations

• Finnish: parhaalla tahdolla(kaan)
• French: avec la meilleure volonté du monde (fr), avec toute la bonne volonté du monde

Further reading

• “with the best will in the world”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “with the best will in the world”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “with the best will in the world” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.