From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishhad besthad bestspokenSHOULD/OUGHT TO ought to We’d best be getting back. → had better at better2(3) → best
Examples from the Corpus
had best• Perhaps we had best ask ourselves why our political institutions function as they do.• They had best be careful.• The concept of differentiation is a key theme of our work, and we had best discuss it as the book unfolds.• Poets like Woodhouse had best go back to their jobs.• If so, we had best listen closely, since we will not get another chance.• Meanwhile we had best prepare the way by showing that a medicine beyond verbal shamanism is an aching need.• But pitchers had best take note as well.• All due, of course, to the fact that she had bested Travis McKenna. 