good riddance

English

Etymology

Appears first in phrases like a great riddance or 'a fair riddance'. An earlier use than William Shakespeare's is in a letter dated 3 August 1597 from Lord Burgh to Sir Robert Cecil in the State Papers relating to Ireland, p.364- or in good riddance.

A later use is from William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, 2, i.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɡʊd ˈɹɪd(ə)ns/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɡʊd ˈɹɪdns/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: good rid‧dance

Interjection

good riddance

1. Used to indicate that a departure or loss is welcome.

   I couldn’t be more glad to see the back of them. Good riddance, I say.

   Goodbye and good riddance!

   • , published 1848, →OCLC, page 510:

     [T]o tell you my mind, Lucretia, I think it's a good riddance. I don't want any of your brazen faces here, myself!]

   • 2020 August 4, Richard Conniff, “They May Look Goofy, but Ostriches are Nobody’s Fool”, in National Geographic‎:

     After 50 years of farming, Fisch too has left the ostrich business, and says good riddance.

Coordinate terms

• at last
• at long last
• finally
• it's about time

Derived terms

• good riddance to bad rubbish

Translations

References

Further reading

• “good riddance”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “good riddance”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “good riddance to somebody” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.