bests

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of best.

   Their strategy bests the competition year after year.

   A sharp negotiator bests rivals at the bargaining table.

   Note

   Here the ending belongs to the transitive verb of outdoing and beating, so it always takes an object: a team bests its rivals, a challenger bests the champion. The colloquial modal in "you had best leave" is fixed with had and never inflects this way. The spelling is shared with the noun plural, so the surrounding grammar tells you which is meant. A subject before it signals the verb, and a word like "personal" before it signals the noun.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of best.

   The runner set three personal bests during the meet.

   All their seasonal bests were posted on the team board.

   Note

   Only the countable uses of the noun take a plural. Doing one's best and being on one's best behavior are uncountable and never become bests. The plural appears when results are counted one by one, as in personal bests. Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan's Training and Racing with a Power Meter (2010) has riders plot all their bests over a span of time to see how power falls as efforts grow longer.

3. 3
   interjectionrare

   A polite, formulaic way to close a letter or email.

   Thanks again for your help with the project. Bests, Maria.

   She typed a quick note, added "Bests," under her name, and hit send.

   Note

   A sign-off whose plural ending may explain itself: it is perhaps short for "best regards and best wishes," two closings folded into one word. It is a rare choice, so it reads as a personal habit rather than a standard formula. Like other closings, it goes on its own line after the message, followed by a comma and then the writer's name.

Showing meanings only. Show all 3