Meanings
- datedobsoleteAn expression of annoyance, impatience or surprise, equivalent to what the devil!
Sir John! Codſo! Let me have you do it inſtantly--What the goodyear.
1768, Charles JOHNSON (Dramatic Writer.), Louis Du Guernier, The Country Lasses, Etc. [With a Plate by Louis Du Guernier.], page 413 more examples
Host. On my word, captain, there's none such here. What the goodyear! do you think I would deny her?
1842, William Shakespeare, John Payne Collier, The Works - The Text Formed from an Entirely New Collation of the Old Editions: with the Various Readings, Notes, a Life of the Poet, and a History of the Early English Stage · Volume 4, page 386"What, the goodyear, Mr. More, I marvel that you, who have been hitherto always taken for a wise man
1851, John Campbell Baron Campbell, The Lives of the Lords Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England, From the Earliest Times Till the Reign of King George IV., page 463'Now, what the goodyear! are we to send you down to Scotland as thin as you came up?
1896, Walter Scott, The fortunes of Nigel, page 26
Origin
Cite this entry
what the goodyear. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/what%20the%20goodyear
“what the goodyear.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/what%20the%20goodyear. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “what the goodyear,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/what%20the%20goodyear.
Source: what the goodyear on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.