good riddance

• good riddings

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.

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

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Audio (General American):

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• Hyphenation: good rid‧dance

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!

   • 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.

• This term almost always carries a negative connotation.

• and nothing of value was lost
• at last
• at long last
• finally
• it's about time

good riddance (plural good riddances)

1. (negative connotation) A welcome departure or loss.
   • , published 1848, →OCLC, page 510:

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

• “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.