Example sentences of "[adj] at the best of times " in BNC.

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1 There were clearly changes occurring , and the borderlines between social classes , never very clear at the best of times , were probably less precise than they had been before the First World War — though class barriers were by no means collapsing in the real world of health , education and social opportunity .
2 I did my ‘ let's invade Poland ’ impersonation , which is n't very funny at the best of times .
3 Finding a lone man amid open ocean is doubtful at the best of times , and we had just been through the densest fog bank either one of us had ever experienced .
4 CASWELL is n't very stealthy at the best of times : stand him within ten feet of a fragile object and he 'll break it just by looking at it .
5 Change is uncomfortable at the best of times and the patient is discomforted .
6 What with their incapacity to move onto proper City jobs , even occasionally to jobs in their own industry , it is no wonder that employees of many licensed dealers , temperamental at the best of times , were often driven to drink .
7 If Gould could be hyperactive and despotic at the best of times , how much more demanding must he have been in preparing for this journey of a lifetime .
8 Negotiating the Magic Roundabout in Swindon can be hair-raising at the best of times … for a Reliant Robin driver , it 's like dicing with death .
9 Negotiating the Magic Roundabout in Swindon can be hair-raising at the best of times … for a Reliant Robin driver , it 's like dicing with death .
10 Relations between Lang and Salmond are not good at the best of times but , given that the SNP had been in the same lobby as the Government the night before , it might have been expected that Lang would have been at least polite .
11 In fact Polanski , unconventional at the best of times , takes us to the limit — and beyond .
12 Memory was mischievously selective at the best of times Trivia stuck limpet-like and the useful filtered away .
13 Since he was inclined to be dyspeptic at the best of times , no one was greatly surprised , unless perhaps at the severity of this attack .
14 She did look ill , and Tippy looked rough at the best of times .
15 This is hazardous at the best of times , using a crane and the natural motion of the sea to lock and unlock the mexeflote cells .
16 Mother Bombie 's joints , stiff at the best of times , even after an internal oiling with home brew , seized up completely .
17 He was in no state to break such news to a woman like Mrs Browning whose sensibilities were tender at the best of times .
18 But the Lab oratory , lit by rows of fluorescent lights and with its low ceiling , was stuffy and ill-ventilated , and this afternoon the central heating , unreliable at the best of times , had concentrated all its efforts on the top of the building .
19 It is difficult at the best of times to persuade consumers to try a new product , but when it is more expensive than rump steak the problem is exacerbated , particularly when one of the undeniable attractions of vegetarianism is that it is such a cheap alternative to eating meat .
20 Unfortunately these conditions also much reduced their rate of march and they got only as far as Polmood , for they were now in the high uplands of the infant Tweed and the going difficult at the best of times .
21 It is difficult at the best of times , however , to distinguish the sexes , and only of academic interest once stung .
22 They can be a bit thick at the best of times , ; you know that amphora you sent me ? well my lot only went and peed in it — I have to go now , Tony 's coming for his Osso Buco .
23 A panel full of increment/decrement wheels and pads can be confusing at the best of times , but in the heat of the moment the effect on a performance can prove more than negative — it can be destructive .
24 Slow , badly coordinated vector graphics are awful at the best of times , but when they 're trying to convey the scintillating action of such a classic film their inadequacy is more poignant .
25 ‘ Pretty chequered at the best of times .
26 But back in LA , the tension between illusion and reality — taut at the best of times — has finally snapped .
27 He is not bright at the best of times .
28 It was horrible at the best of times , but on Saturdays it was worse .
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