good word

plural good words

1. Positive recommendation.

   Not surprisingly, my students rarely have a good word for good works!

   2003, Allison A. Trites, R. Glenn Wooden, Timothy R. Ashley, You Will be My Witnesses, →ISBN, page 279

   2 more examples

   My grandfather mentioned the problem to Lord Fermoy, whom he knew through the British Legion. and Lord Fermoy said he would put in a good word.

   2011, Roger Garfitt, The Horseman's Word, →ISBN, page 59

   For instance, if the person worked for a large company or lived in a large apartment building, he would give them a special price on their medications and tell them that he was doing so in the hope that they would pass the good word about the store to their friends.

   2011, George Silverman, The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, →ISBN, page 167

2. News, recent events, especially of a positive nature

   "Hello, Worth: What's the good word?” “I have some news for you, but I'm afraid its not 'the good word' as you say.” “OK, What's the bad news?"

   2001, Paul Krebill, A Place Called Fairhavens, →ISBN, page 102

   1 more example

   He starts to thank me PROFUSELY, and I tell him to can that shit. I tell him to slip me the good word via General Delivery, Hubbard, North Dakota. "Listen, asshole," I say, "send me a postcard from the Weird Land of Mooses."

   2006, Keith Maillard, Looking Good, →ISBN, page 418

3. A holy promise or teaching.

   God's good word, both law and gospel, is your bulwark, your defense against bad theology and techniques of spirituality that make you anxious.

   2010, Phillip Cary, Good News for Anxious Christians: Ten Practical Things You Don't Have to Do, →ISBN

4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see good, word.

1. The Bible, especially the New Testament.

   My Emily was always after me to read the good word with her, and now that she is gone, it is my only consolation.

   1975, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine- Volume 66, page 18

   1 more example

   I also could have done without the scene illustrating the difficulties that an ignorant savage—or anyone whose brain is in full, working order—might have with certain passages of the Bible. Sitting in the prayer tent while Wes Studhi is conducting business, the Indians look at their copies of the good word with the same look of uncomprehending bafflement that Sid Vicious used to sometimes look at his bass, and then fall out of their chairs laughing when one smarty-pants among them allows as how she’d love to have been a fly on the wall when Mary was explaining to Joseph about how she’d gotten pregnant.

   2011 December 11, Phil Dyess-Nugent, “Review: Hell On Wheels: “Pride, Pomp And Circumstance”, in A.V. Club