good and

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Adverb

good and (comparative more good and, superlative most good and)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see good,‎ and.
2. (idiomatic, used as an intensifier) Very; exceptionally; utterly.
   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 25, in Treasure Island:

     As for that swab, he's good and dead, he is.

   • 1946, H. L. Mencken, American Mercury:

     Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.

   • 2008, Nancy Huston, Fault Lines, →ISBN:

     [S]he doesn't insist on the whole vegetable-meat-fish-eggs aspect of eating, saying I'll get around to that when I'm good and ready for it.

Usage notes

• Precedes an adjective or adverb.
• Only context can distinguish this usage from the more conventional usage in which good functions as an adjective conjoined by and to a second adjective, as in the example below:
  • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 20, in Little Women:

    Money is a good and useful thing.

See also

• nice and

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.
• Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987-1996.