good riddance to bad rubbish

alternative archaic good riddance of bad rubbish

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

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

   5 more examples

   And the pedlar takes the devil! ha, ha, ha!—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

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

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

   "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!"

   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

   "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.

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

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

   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

alternative archaic good riddance of bad rubbish

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

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

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

   2 more examples

   [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; [...]

   [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 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.

   [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