| 释义 |
good thing
[See good a. 10, 11, etc.]
1. a. A successful act or speculation. b. A witty saying or remark. c. pl. Luxuries in general; spec. rich food, dainties. d. A course of action, etc., that is commendable, desirable, etc. (cf. good a. 4).
a.1820Examiner No. 633. 351/2 You must have made a good thing of it if you have got the 1000l. 1883Mrs. E. Kennard Right Sort v. (1884) 51 Now and again..Jack Clinker managed to pull off some ‘good thing’ on the turf. 1888H. James Reverberator ii. 35 He had a genius for happy speculation, the quick, unerring instinct of a ‘good thing’. a1889J. Albery Dram. Works (1939) I. 191 I'll put her on to a good thing. 1889E. Sampson Tales of Fancy 31, I was so fast that I had been kept at these ‘stables’ until some ‘good thing’ should offer. 1898J. D. Brayshaw Slum Silhouettes 100 As luck would have it, I managed to put the old man on to a good thing. 1913Field 4 Jan. 26/1 Master at Arms is not a big horse, and with 12 st 7 lb in the saddle he hardly looked like a good thing for the Sunbury Steeplechase.
b.1694Congreve Double Dealer i. ii, The Deuce take me if there were three good things said. 1775Johnson Let. to Mrs. Thrale 23 June, I hope you..heard music, and said good things. 1807W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 125 He could not for the soul of him restrain a good thing. 1840Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk., Fr. Fashion. Novels, When we say a good thing, in the course of the night, we are wondrous lucky and pleased.
c.1821P. Egan Life in London i. iv. 58 Tom was born to be a happy fellow, if the enjoyment of the ‘good things’ of this world could have made him so. 1861M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 46 The German relished for his breakfast the good things..here provided. 1888Burgon Lives 12 Gd. Men II. v. 29 He would partake freely of the good things before him.
d.1897Sears, Roebuck Catal. 198/2 This Shoe we have called ‘A Good Thing’, because the name signifies just what we believe the shoe is. 1930Sellar & Yeatman 1066 & All That i. 3 The Roman Conquest was..a Good Thing, since the Britons were only natives at that time. Ibid. xxi. 29 Simon de Montfort, though only a Frenchman, was..a Good Thing. Ibid. xlvii. 90 Fox said in the House of Commons that the French Revolution was a Good Thing. 1942E. Waugh Put out More Flags iii. 213 He..had a liking for books; he thought them a Good Thing. 1960Observer 17 Apr. 21/6 The general assumption that the French influence on England has been ‘a good thing’. 1960Guardian 26 Aug. 8/6 We all believe that group counselling..[is] a ‘good thing’.
2. too much of a good thing: an act, behaviour, etc., spoilt by its excess.
1600Shakes. As You like It iv. i. 123 Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing. 1809[see too adv. 5 b]. 1852Mrs. Gaskell Let. 4 Sept. (1966) 197 We went at ½ p. 9, & did not get out till 1/4 to 4, which was too much of a good thing. 1895S. Crane Red Badge of Courage vi. 66 This is too much of a good thing! Why can't somebody send us supports? 1932A. Huxley in D. H. Lawrence Lett. p. xvi, The great work of art and the monument more perennial than brass are, in their very perfection and everlastingness, inhuman—too much of a good thing. 1954J. R. R. Tolkien Fellowship of Ring i. i. 29 Some..shook their heads and thought this was too much of a good thing. |