From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englisha conservative estimate/guessa conservative estimate/guessGUESSa guess which is deliberately lower than what the real amount probably is At a conservative estimate, the holiday will cost about £1,500. → conservative
Examples from the Corpus
a conservative estimate/guess• Conservative estimates indicate at least 150 people were killed in the military coup.• I understand that is a conservative estimate.• By even a conservative estimate, about 10,000 Dall's porpoise were harpooned each year from 1976 to 1987.• On this basis imitation tasks ought to be regarded as giving a conservative estimate of the child's grammatical knowledge.• All the data published on the effect of gill-nets on small cetaceans probably represents a conservative estimate of the number of deaths.• Narcotics agents believe a conservative estimate of the number of laboratories is between 200 and 300.• At a conservative estimate the water was nearly a yard deep, even near the edge.• On a conservative estimate, there are now about 5,000 books or articles that deal with it, at least in part.• At a conservative estimate they had cost considerably more than she had just paid for her night's lodging. 