Had Better

Definition: Had Better

Had Better

Verb

1. Expresses an emotional, practical, or other reason for doing something: "You had better put on warm clothes"; "You should call your mother-in-law"; "The State ought to repair the bridges".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Tips from 1870

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Had Better

Crosswords: Had Better

Not to appear facetious, sir, but you had better tell that to a judge. (Sleuth; writing credit: Anthony Shaffer)

Maybe we had better put the car in our luggage. (I'll Take Sweden; writing credit: Bob Fisher; Arthur Marx)

And tell the cook this is low grade dogfood. I've had better food at the ballgame, you know? (Caddyshack; writing credit: Brian Doyle-Murray; Harold Ramis)

I thought Alex had better taste in men than to go out with you. (Wings; writing credit: Ere Kokkonen)

Everyone walked out. They hated it. I've seen plagues that had better opening nights than this. (Futurama; writing credit: Lance Smith; Carl Colpaert)

But maybe you had better let it go at that! ("Oedipus Rex"; performing artist: Tom Lehrer)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Music

• You Had Better Listen (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Though I think he had better not have married.

But, as you may find it a little difficult, just at first, I had better put it into English for you.

Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Health

At the last CDC, data on cochlear implantation suggested that children or adults with postlingual onset of deafness had better auditory performance than children or adults with prelingual or perilingual onset. (references)

Civil Liberties

Moldova

Although Catalan-TV was not the only station to violate the law, it was the most frequent violator and allegedly lacked the protection available to some of the other offenders, who had better political connections. (references)

Economic History

Cote D'ivoire

A development which may help U.S. companies had better compete will be the move from ad valorem rates based on the Brussels Definition of Value (BDV) to invoice based rates. (references)

Political Economy

Angola

The poor discipline and poor working conditions of the military made it the worst offender; police units generally had better discipline and a more effective chain of command. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expressions using "had better": you had better ♦ you had better go ♦ you had better not. Additional references.

Bulgarian 

по-добре би било да (you had better). (various references)

Chinese 

最好 (best). (various references)

Finnish

sinun olisi paras lähteä (you had better go), olisi viisainta lähteä (it would be a wise thing to go, we had better go), minun olisi paras laittautua tieheni (I had better make tracks), älä huoli mennä (you had better not go). (various references)

German

wenn Sie jetzt gingen (you had better go now), es wäre besser (you had better go now). (various references)

Greek 

θα ήταν καλύτερα. (various references)

Hebrew 

מוטב ש- (it is better that). (various references)

Hungarian

jobb lenne, ha (had rather, you had better, you'd). (various references)

Italian

sarebbe meglio che. (various references)

Pig Latin

adhay etterbay.(various references)

Russian 

лучше бы (had rather). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

bilo bi bolje. (various references)

Spanish

más vale que, conviene que. (various references)

Thai

น่าจะ. (various references)

Turkish

yapmasan iyi olur (you had better not), yapmasan daha iyi (you had better not), gitsen iyi olur (you had better go), gitsen daha iyi (you had better go). (various references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: battered, breathed, threated.

-2 letters: abetted, abetter, berated, beretta, berthed, breadth, breathe, debater, earthed, hearted, rebated, tabered, theater, theatre, thereat, treated.

-3 letters: adhere, aether, bathed, bather, batted, batter, beater, behead, berate, bertha, betted, better, breath, dearth, debate, derate, hatred, hatted, hatter, header, heated, heater, herbed, hereat, ratted, rebate, redate, reheat, retted, tarted, teared, teated, tether, tetrad, thread, threat.

-4 letters: ardeb, arete, barde, bared, bated, bathe, beard, beret, berth, betta, bread, brede, breed, dater, death, debar, derat, deter, eared, earth, eater, ether, hared, hated, hater, heard, heart, heder, rated, rathe, rehab, taber, tared, tater, teeth, tetra, thebe, there, theta, three, trade, tread, treat, treed.

-5 letters: abed, abet, bade, baht, bard, bare, bate, bath, batt, bead, bear, beat, beer, beet, beta, beth, brad, brae, brat, bred, bree, darb, dare, dart, date, dear, debt, deer, deet, dere, drab, drat, dree, eath, hade, haed, haet, hard, hare, hart, hate, head, hear, heat, hebe, heed, herb, herd, here, rate, rath, read, rede, reed, rete, rhea, tahr, tare, tart, tate, tear, teat, teed, teth, thae, that, thee, trad, tree, tret.

+4 letters: rehabilitated.

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