English

Adverb

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

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

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

   • 2008, Nancy Huston, Fault Lines, ISBN 9780802170514:

     [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, Little Women, ch. 20:

    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.