good riddance to bad rubbish

English

WOTD – 31 December 2020

Etymology

Possibly an elaboration of good riddance, contrasting the word good with bad, and using the word rubbish to form an alliteration with riddance.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɡʊd ˈɹɪd(ə)ns tə ˌbæd ˈɹʌbɪʃ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɡʊd ˈɹɪdns tə ˌbæd ˈɹʌbɪʃ/, /-ˈɹəbɪʃ/
• Hyphenation: good rid‧dance to bad rub‧bish

Interjection

good riddance to bad rubbish

1. Used to indicate that one welcomes the departure of someone or something: good riddance!

   Synonym: (archaic) good riddance of bad rubbish

   “Franklin quit today.”   “Well, good riddance to bad rubbish!”

   • 1838, [Richard Brinsley Peake], “The Bottle Imp”, in Benjamin [Nottingham] Webster, editor, The Acting National Drama, […], volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, act II, scene iii, page 23:

     And the pedlar takes the devil! ha, ha, ha!—Good riddance to bad rubbish.

   • [1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “A Separation”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 438:

     "A good riddance of bad rubbish!" said that wrathful old lady. "Get along with you, or I'll have you carried out!"]

   • 1853, A[nna] Maria Collins, chapter 4, in Mrs. Ben Darby: Or The Weal and Woe of Social Life, 2nd edition, Cincinnati, Oh.: Moore, Anderson, Wilstach & Keys, […], →OCLC, page 35:

     "Mrs. Grimes, you are so good—but how can I sleep when poor Peter is at home by himself dead drunk?" / "Why, he is as happy as a lord mayor." / "But the house might take fire!" / "If it should, it wouldn't matter much if he went with it—good riddance to bad rubbish, say I!"

   • 1869, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Wedding After-talks at Oldtown”, in Oldtown Folks, Boston, Mass.: Fields, Osgood, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 573:

     "I'd rather stay in an asylum all my life than go back to that man," said Aunt Lois. / "Wal, you see she did n't," said Sam; "her friends they made him make a settlement on her, poor woman, and he cleared out t' England." / "Good riddance to bad rubbish," said my grandmother.

   • 1875, Horatio Alger, Jr., “Sam Takes French Leave”, in The Young Outlaw: Or, Adrift in the Streets (Tattered Tom, Second Series; 2), Philadelphia, Pa., Chicago, Ill.: The John C. Winston Co., →OCLC, page 87:

     "Well, he didn't do much work," admitted the deacon. / "While he ate enough for two boys. Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say."

   • 1903 November 27, [Francis Worcester Doughty], “The Bradys and Brady the Banker; or, The Secret of the Old Santa Fe Trail”, in Secret Service. Old and Young King Brady, Detectives, number 253, New York, N.Y.: Frank Tousey, →OCLC, chapter I (The Bradys and Mr. Brady), page 3, column 1:

     It's good riddance to bad rubbish, but it's likely to make trouble for me yet.

   • 1939, Nathanael West, “The Day of the Locust”, in The Complete Works of Nathanael West, London: Picador in association with Secker & Warburg, published 1983, →ISBN, chapter 24, page 398:

     "She's left." / "Yes, I know. Drink some coffee." / "She's left." / Tod knew that he put a great deal of faith in sayings, so he tried one. / "Good riddance to bad rubbish."

   • 1999, Ruth Rendell, chapter 8, in Harm Done, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 115:

     It's not likely any folks here'd stop him going, is it? Good riddance to bad rubbish is what I say.

   • 2008, Kate Thompson, chapter 4, in Creature of the Night (A Definitions Book), London: Random House Children’s Books, published 2009, →ISBN, page 11:

     Miraculously, Mrs Dooley had brought us a box of eggs. ‘You must be psychic!’ my ma said, showing her the broken ones in the bin. ‘Good riddance to bad rubbish,’ Mrs Dooley said.

   • 2014, Desmond Tutu, “You are Loved”, in In God’s Hands: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2015, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury USA, →ISBN, page 78:

     So the lost sheep must have been an exceedingly troublesome old rogue and many shepherds would probably have sighed with relief that that one had disappeared and said with considerable relief, ‘Good riddance to bad rubbish.’ But the Good Shepherd refuses to give up on the recalcitrant one.

Translations

used to indicate that one welcomes the departure of someone or something — see good riddance

Noun

good riddance to bad rubbish (uncountable)

1. An act of getting rid of someone or something whose departure is welcomed.

   Synonym: (archaic) good riddance of bad rubbish

   • [1805 June, [Tobias George Smollett], “Art. VII.—Harvest Home: Consisting of Supplementary Gleanings, Original Dramas, and Poems, Contributions of Literary Friends, and Select Republications; including Sympathy, a Poem, Revised, Corrected, and Enlarged, from the Eighth Edition. By Mr. Pratt. 3 Vols. 8vo. 1l. 11s. 6d. Phillips 1805. [book review]”, in The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature (Series the Third), volume V, number II, London: […] J. Mawman, […]; and sold by J. Deighton, […]; Hanwell and Parker, and J. Cooke, […], →OCLC, page 199:

     [W]e should really look upon this author's [Samuel Jackson Pratt's] departure from the world of literature as a good riddance of bad rubbish; [...]]

   • [1866], Charles Bray, “Upon that which Underlies all Phenomena”, in On Force, Its Mental and Moral Correlates; and on That which is Supposed to Underlie All Phenomena: With Speculations of Spiritualism and Other Abnormal Conditions of Mind, London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, →OCLC, page 60:

     [W]e have simply emanations falling back again upon their source, and as in the Kabbalah and with the Buddhist, a longing for peace in rest and eternal sleep—a re-absorption, and in fact annihilation as the end most devoutly to be wished; in fact the getting quit of ourselves as a very good riddance to bad rubbish, and which is actually the sum and substance of the pervading idea of the Buddhist religion.

   • 2009, Oliver Akamnonu, “Mungeruun at Birth and Maturity”, in Nation of Dead Patriots—An African Nation’s Dilemma, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, page 30:

     It was not seen as good riddance to bad rubbish, but it was welcome news in many quarters.

Translations

act of getting rid of someone or something whose departure is welcomed

Further reading

• “good riddance to (also of) bad rubbish” under “riddance, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2010.