damnedest

do (one's) damnedest

To put forth the maximum amount of energy or effort toward some task or goal. Money is a little tight at the moment, but I'll do my damnedest to be there for your wedding. I'm doing my damnedest to get a passing grade in this class.
See also: damnedest

try (one's) damnedest

To put forth the maximum amount of energy or effort toward some task or goal. Money is a little tight at the moment, but I'll try my damnedest to be there for your wedding! I'm trying my damnedest to get a passing grade in this class.
See also: damnedest, try
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

do one's best

Also, do one's level best or one's damnedest . Perform as well as one can, do the utmost possible, as in I'm doing my best to balance this statement, or She did her level best to pass the course, or He did his damnedest to get done in time. The first term dates from the 16th century, but the addition of level, here meaning "very," occurred only in the mid-1800s; the variant dates from the late 1800s.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

do your damnedest

INFORMAL, RUDE
If you do your damnedest to achieve something, you try as hard as you can to do it. I did my damnedest to persuade her. She was doing her damnedest to look as if she didn't care. Note: People sometimes use try instead of do. Ted tried his damnedest to explain things.
See also: damnedest
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

do (or try) your damnedest

do or try your utmost to do something.
The superlative form of the adjective damned is used here as a noun and can mean either ‘your worst’ or (more usually now) ‘your best’, depending on the context.
See also: damnedest
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

do/try your ˈdamnedest

(informal) try very hard; make a very great effort: He was doing his damnedest to make me feel uncomfortable so that I would leave.
See also: damnedest, try
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • do (one's) damnedest
  • do your damnedest
  • do/try your damnedest
  • try (one's) damnedest
  • do (one's) darnedest
  • break a sweat
  • bend (one's) efforts
  • bend your mind/efforts to something
  • apply
  • apply oneself to
References in periodicals archive
"We'll do our damnedest to make sure he has no comfortable day, we'll be rolling our sleeves up and giving it our best shot.
We won't wind up Dylan - Laidlaw
Sir David, while confident that nature has the ability to recover, added: "We're doing our damnedest to prevent that now."
Attenborough: Humanity is threat to itself
Even in the act--whichever "the" act is in question--there are moments of weird alienation from the beloved person, when love is not quite in play and this juxtaposition of parts seems the very damnedest thing to be doing.
A durable fire
You're on your feet, in front of a crowd, talking at the top of your lungs, sweating, telling lame jokes, trying your damnedest to reach everyone in that audience, even the kid sleeping in the back.
Like comedians, teachers need set breaks
Get after it, do your damnedest. But the president ..."
The president, the painter, and porn: actor-painter Jeff Griggs presented a portrait to President Bush in the White House. Then the tabloids discovered his gay-porn past. (People)
"But if a [valued] company is struggling, we're going to do our damnedest to support them."
Tough Times/Tougher Banks: Bank consolidation and the recession have made it more difficult for companies to find lenders ready and willing to give them money. (Banking)
I see the Eden Alternative, for example, as simply another manifestation of quality management: You're doing your damnedest to keep the customer happy--and if it happens to involve livestock, so be it!
Training Tomorrow's Top Managers
"Pena would get the city into the damnedest boondoggles, not because he stood to personally profit, but because he couldn't say no when somebody brought him a project," notes Don Bain, the chairman of the Colorado Republicans who ran unsuccessfully against Pena in 1987.
Bad choices for big jobs: how Clinton misplays identity politics
Big business, and its apologists in the media, have done their damnedest to discredit this idea, and to scare the American public that Social Security and Medicare are going bankrupt.
Privatization blues
Ryu Murakami's Sixty-Nine is an autobiographical novel that looks back at a group of high school students stuck in the sticks of western Japan in 1969 but doing their damnedest nevertheless to be part of the youthquake then shaking the world.
Sixty-Nine
The impression they give of powerful vulnerability or vulnerably power--as if a gorilla were doing its damnedest to fit in at a tea party--has increased, if anything.
Susan Rothenberg: United States
The book ends up with an appraisal of Pete Rose, appropriately called, "A Story Without a Hero." It is the "damnedest" way to end a book covering nearly a half-century of sports writing, he says.
Games We Used to Play: A Lover's Quarrel With Sports
Barry's choreography for the fight scene was persuasive and ingenious, allowing the venomed and unbated tip of Laertes' sword to do its damnedest without a lot of stage blood.
Hamlet
The police were working on him, they tried their absolute damnedest with that boy last night."
Birthday party ends in horror
And, I know Northumbrian Water, along with the council and the community, have done their damnedest to eliminate water pollution.
Beaches hit the rocks