The Collaborative International Dictionary
Good \Good\, a. [Compar. Better; superl. Best. These words, though used as the comparative and superlative of good, are from a different root.] [AS. G[=o]d, akin to D. goed, OS. g[=o]d, OHG. guot, G. gut, Icel. g[=o][eth]r, Sw. & Dan. god, Goth. g[=o]ds; prob. orig., fitting, belonging together, and akin to E. gather. [root]29 Cf. Gather.]
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Possessing desirable qualities; adapted to answer the end designed; promoting success, welfare, or happiness; serviceable; useful; fit; excellent; admirable; commendable; not bad, corrupt, evil, noxious, offensive, or troublesome, etc.
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
--Gen. i. 31.Good company, good wine, good welcome.
--Shak. -
Possessing moral excellence or virtue; virtuous; pious; religious; -- said of persons or actions.
In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works.
--Tit. ii. 7. -
Kind; benevolent; humane; merciful; gracious; polite; propitious; friendly; well-disposed; -- often followed by to or toward, also formerly by unto.
The men were very good unto us.
--1 Sam. xxv. 15. -
Serviceable; suited; adapted; suitable; of use; to be relied upon; -- followed especially by for.
All quality that is good for anything is founded originally in merit.
--Collier. -
Clever; skillful; dexterous; ready; handy; -- followed especially by at.
He . . . is a good workman; a very good tailor.
--Shak.Those are generally good at flattering who are good for nothing else.
--South. -
Adequate; sufficient; competent; sound; not fallacious; valid; in a commercial sense, to be depended on for the discharge of obligations incurred; having pecuniary ability; of unimpaired credit.
My reasons are both good and weighty.
--Shak.My meaning in saying he is a good man is . . . that he is sufficient . . . I think I may take his bond.
--Shak. -
Real; actual; serious; as in the phrases in good earnest; in good sooth.
Love no man in good earnest.
--Shak. Not small, insignificant, or of no account; considerable; esp., in the phrases a good deal, a good way, a good degree, a good share or part, etc.
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Not lacking or deficient; full; complete.
Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over.
--Luke vi. 38. -
Not blemished or impeached; fair; honorable; unsullied; as in the phrases a good name, a good report, good repute, etc. A good name is better than precious ointment. --Eccl. vii.
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As good as. See under As. For good, or For good and all, completely and finally; fully; truly. The good woman never died after this, till she came to die for good and all. --L'Estrange. Good breeding, polite or polished manners, formed by education; a polite education. Distinguished by good humor and good breeding. --Macaulay. Good cheap, literally, good bargain; reasonably cheap. Good consideration (Law).
A consideration of blood or of natural love and affection.
--Blackstone.-
A valuable consideration, or one which will sustain a contract. Good fellow, a person of companionable qualities. Good folk, or Good people, fairies; brownies; pixies, etc. [Colloq. Eng. & Scot.] Good for nothing.
Of no value; useless; worthless.
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Used substantively, an idle, worthless person. My father always said I was born to be a good for nothing. --Ld. Lytton. Good Friday, the Friday of Holy Week, kept in some churches as a fast, in memoory of our Savior's passion or suffering; the anniversary of the crucifixion. Good humor, or Good-humor, a cheerful or pleasant temper or state of mind. Good humor man, a travelling vendor who sells Good Humor ice-cream (or some similar ice-cream) from a small refrigerated truck; he usually drives slowly through residential neighborhoods in summertime, loudly playing some distinctive recorded music to announce his presence. Good nature, or Good-nature, habitual kindness or mildness of temper or disposition; amiability; state of being in good humor. The good nature and generosity which belonged to his character. --Macaulay. The young count's good nature and easy persuadability were among his best characteristics. --Hawthorne. Good people. See Good folk (above). Good speed, good luck; good success; godspeed; -- an old form of wishing success. See Speed. Good turn, an act of kidness; a favor. Good will.
Benevolence; well wishing; kindly feeling.
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(Law) The custom of any trade or business; the tendency or inclination of persons, old customers and others, to resort to an established place of business; the advantage accruing from tendency or inclination. The good will of a trade is nothing more than the probability that the old customers will resort to the old place. --Lord Eldon. In good time.
Promptly; punctually; opportunely; not too soon nor too late.
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(Mus.) Correctly; in proper time.
To hold good, to remain true or valid; to be operative; to remain in force or effect; as, his promise holds good; the condition still holds good.
To make good, to fulfill; to establish; to maintain; to supply (a defect or deficiency); to indemmify; to prove or verify (an accusation); to prove to be blameless; to clear; to vindicate.
Each word made good and true.
--Shak.Of no power to make his wishes good.
--Shak.I . . . would by combat make her good.
--Shak.Convenient numbers to make good the city.
--Shak.To think good, to approve; to be pleased or satisfied with; to consider expedient or proper.
If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear.
--Zech. xi. 1
Note: Good, in the sense of wishing well, is much used in greeting and leave-taking; as, good day, good night, good evening, good morning, etc.
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Usage examples of "good-nature".
But he had plenty of good-nature and plenty of money, and these are better than learning and gallantry.
And the baronet proceeded to eulogize his own good-nature, by which it is just necessary to remark that one miscreant had been saved for a few years from transportation, in order to rob and murder ad libitum, and, having fulfilled the office of a common pest, to suffer on the gallows at last.
Such, for instance, is that roue yonder, the very prince of Bath fops, Handsome Jack, whose vanity induces him to assert that his eyebrows are worth one hundred per annum to any young fellow in pursuit of a fortune: it should, however, be admitted, that his gentlemanly manners and great good-nature more than compensate for any little detractions on the score of self-conceit.
There were a newspaper man--the editor of a fashionable journal--and a middle-aged man of letters, playwright, critic, humourist, a man whose society was in demand everywhere, and who said sharp things with the most supreme good-nature.
She had lived several years a servant with a schoolmaster, who, discovering a great quickness of parts in the girl, and an extraordinary desire of learning- for every leisure hour she was always found reading in the books of the scholars- had the good-nature, or folly- just as the reader pleases to call it- to instruct her so far, that she obtained a competent skill in the Latin language, and was, perhaps, as good a scholar as most of the young men of quality of the age.
Tom innocently improved to better advantage, by following only the dictates of his natural gallantry and good-nature, than he might perhaps have done had he had the deepest designs on the young lady.
Brown to veil, as far as he was able, the vivacity of his looks beneath an expression of open and unheeding good-nature, an expression strangely enough contrasting with the closeness and sagacity which Nature had indelibly stamped upon features pointed, aquiline, and impressed with a strong mixture of the Judaical physiognomy.
I have no impertinent curiosity about me: but love good-nature and thence became amoris abundantia erga te.
And then he had come behind her chair, whispering to her, speaking to her his first words of kindness and good-nature, and she had resolved that she would be his friend--his friend, even though Griselda Grantly might be his wife.
Crawford, with all his boasted good-nature, and all his coachmanship, probably knew nothing of the matter, and had no active kindness in comparison of Edmund.
Sully, who reports this fact in his Memoirs, does not throw the slightest doubt upon its exactness, and adds, that it was chiefly owing to the facility and ill-advised good-nature of his royal master that the bad example had so empoisoned the court, the city, and the whole country.
Even Short seemed to change in this respect, and to mingle with his good-nature something of a desire to keep them in safe custody.
If the example of that nation is to have an influence on this, I can easily conceive why some of their proceedings which have an unpleasant aspect and are not quite reconcilable to humanity, generosity, good faith, and justice are palliated with so much milky good-nature toward the actors, and borne with so much heroic fortitude toward the sufferers.
Sovereigns will consider those who advise them to place an unlimited confidence in their people as subverters of their thrones, as traitors who aim at their destruction by leading their easy good-nature, under specious pretenses, to admit combinations of bold and faithless men into a participation of their power.