Does "at the earliest" mean "as soon as possible"? I believe the expression "at the earliest" refers to a point of time before which something cannot happen. Say, if I hear someone say "I can do it Friday morning at the earliest", I would assume that person cannot do that task before Friday morning. But here in India, I have often observed people saying "at the earliest" to mean "as soon as possible". For example, people here say something like "can you please mail me the documents at the earliest?" instead of saying "Can you please mail me the documents as soon as possible?" My question is, do native (American/British/Australian etc.) English speakers too use the expression "at the earliest" to mean "as soon as possible"?