best laid plans
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Even well-planned actions can go wrong
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Thậm chí những hành động được lên kế hoạch tốt có thể đi sai
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: well-planned plans
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
We had the best laid plans for our vacation, but it rained every day
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “best laid plans” mean?
Even well-planned actions can go wrong Literally: well-planned plans
Is “best laid plans” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.