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Reader question: Please explain this sentence, particularly “better judgement”: Jack taunts and challenges Ralph to go up the mountain to search for the beast, which he does against his better judgement. My comments: Ralph knew it would be dangerous to go with Jack up the mountain in search of the beast. Yet, he went, unable to resist Jack’s taunts and challenges. Ralph knew he shouldn’t have gone. Ralph’s decision to go is his actual judgement. That he shouldn’t have gone is, literally, “his better judgement”. That’s what is implied here. Anyways, “against one’s better judgement”, or judgment (American spelling) is the full phrase to learn. When people say they did something against their better judgment, they mean to say they shouldn’t have done it had they fully followed their head instead of the heart, so to speak. In other words, they more or less regret it now. Let me give you an example. A few years ago, a friend of mine bought a 49-inch television for his dormitory and instantly regretted it. “I fell for its price,” he said afterward. “I wanted a 29-inch television but the 40-inch piece was on sale and they cost almost the same. I fell for the words of the saleswoman and quite impulsively bought the big one. Now, after setting it up in my room, which you know is only about 10 square meters in size, it looks enormously too large. In fact, it feels quite out of place.” | 
