put your best foot forward

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Also seen as: put one's best foot forward

Sense 1

Meaning · English

Embark on an undertaking with as much effort and determination as possible.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Bắt đầu một việc gì đó với nỗ lực và quyết tâm lớn nhất

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

Put your best foot forward did you?

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).

Sense 2

Meaning · English

Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English
Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review.

Common questions

What does “put your best foot forward” mean?

Embark on an undertaking with as much effort and determination as possible.

Is “put your best foot forward” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.