for good

for good

English

Pronunciation

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Prepositional phrase

for good

1. (idiomatic) In a way that is conclusive and final.

   A bad haircut is no fun, but at least you're not stuck with it for good; only until it grows out.

   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, London, Volume 7, Letter 53, p. 200,

     […] she was dozing in the elbow-chair, having refused to lie down, saying, She should soon, she hoped, lie down for good.

   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London: Cassell, Chapter 26, p. 207,

     “ […] do you take it as a dead man is dead for good, or do he come alive again?”

   • 1971, Leonard Cohen (lyrics and music), “Famous Blue Raincoat”:

     Yes, and thanks for the trouble you took from her eyes. I thought it was there for good so I never tried.

   • 2019, Maaza Mengiste, The Shadow King, New York: Norton, Book 3,

     He […] unbuttons the bottom of his jacket so the rumors can be dispelled for good: he no longer wears his double belts.

Synonyms

• definitively, for good and all, forever, once and for all, permanently.

Hyponyms

• for keeps

Translations

forever; permanently

Catalan: d'una vegada per totes Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Czech: navždy (cs), nadobro Danish: for evigt, for altid Dutch: voorgoed (nl) Finnish: lopullisesti (fi), pysyvästi (fi) French: pour de bon (fr), définitivement (fr) Galician: para sempre, de vez Georgian: სამუდამოდ (samudamod) German: für immer (de), endgültig (de), auf ewig Greek: για τα καλά (el) (gia ta kalá) Hungarian: végleg (hu), véglegesen, örökre (hu), egyszer s mindenkorra Italian: per sempre, definitivamente (it) Japanese: 永遠に (eien ni), 永久に (eikyu ni) Norwegian: Bokmål: for godt Nynorsk: for godt, for ollo Polish: na dobre Portuguese: para sempre (pt), eternamente (pt), em definitivo, de vez (pt) Russian: навсегда́ (ru) (navsegdá), наве́ки (ru) (navéki) Serbo-Croatian: zauvijek (sh), jednom za svagda Spanish: con toda la barba, para siempre, definitivamente (es), de una vez por todas Swedish: för gott (sv), för alltid, för evigt Ukrainian: назавжди́ (nazavždý)