good riddance to bad rubbish

Syllables: good rid·dance to bad rub·bish/ˌɡʊd ˈɹɪd(ə)ns tə ˌbæd ˈɹʌbɪʃ/US/ˌɡʊd ˈɹɪdns tə ˌbæd ˈɹʌbɪʃ/

good riddance to bad rubbish interjection: used to indicate that one welcomes the departure of someone or something: good riddance!

Interjection

Used to indicate that one welcomes the departure of someone or something: good riddance!
- “Franklin quit today.” “Well, good riddance to bad rubbish!”
- 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

good riddance to bad rubbish (uncountable)

An act of getting rid of someone or something whose departure is welcomed.
- [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...
- [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...[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...

It's good riddance to bad rubbish, but it's likely to make trouble for me yet.1903 November 27, [Francis Worcester Doughty], “The Bradys and Brady the Banker; or, The Secret of the Old Santa Fe Trail”, in Secret...
Drink some coffee." / "She's left." / Tod knew that he put a great deal of faith in sayings, so he tried one. / "Good riddance to bad rubbish."1939, Nathanael West, “The Day of the Locust”, in The Complete Works of Nathanael West, London: Picador in association with Secker &...
Good riddance to bad rubbish is what I say.1999, Ruth Rendell, chapter 8, in Harm Done, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN, page 115:
Miraculously, Mrs Dooley had brought us a box of eggs. ‘You must be psychic!’ my ma said, showing her the broken ones in the bin. ‘Good riddance to bad rubbish,’ Mrs Dooley said.2008, Kate Thompson, chapter 4, in Creature of the Night (A Definitions Book), London: Random House Children’s Books, published 2009...

alternative form (archaic)	good riddance of bad rubbish

Possibly an elaboration of good riddance, contrasting the word good with bad, and using the word rubbish to form an alliteration with riddance.

What does good riddance to bad rubbish mean?: Good riddance to bad rubbish means used to indicate that one welcomes the departure of someone or something: good riddance!
How do you use good riddance to bad rubbish in a sentence?: It's good riddance to bad rubbish, but it's likely to make trouble for me yet.
What part of speech is good riddance to bad rubbish?: Good riddance to bad rubbish can be an interjection or a noun.
How do you pronounce good riddance to bad rubbish?: Good riddance to bad rubbish is pronounced /ˌɡʊd ˈɹɪd(ə)ns tə ˌbæd ˈɹʌbɪʃ/ (UK).

Adapted from Wiktionary: good riddance to bad rubbish (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-good riddance to bad rubbish.wav.

Cite this entry: “good riddance to bad rubbish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/good_riddance_to_bad_rubbish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.