Word.ws English Dictionary

goodnight Irene

goodnight Irene noun: an involuntary departure.

Noun

goodnight Irene

  1. (idiomatic) An involuntary departure.
    • What the bleedin' 'ell? We were havin' a right rip snorter 'ere, and then this piker shows up, and just like that it's "Good night, Irene"!2011 February 21, “Stop! Celebrate and Witness, Goku's Back From 100X Fitness!” (4:59 from the start), in Dragon Ball Z Abridged, season 2, episode 11, spoken by Jeice (GanXingba), TeamFourStar...

Forms of goodnight Irene

alternative formgood night, Irene
alternative formgood night Irene
alternative formgoodnight, Irene

Origin of goodnight Irene

From the blues/folk song Goodnight Irene first popularized by Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter.

Questions about goodnight Irene

What does goodnight Irene mean?
Goodnight Irene means an involuntary departure.
What part of speech is goodnight Irene?
Goodnight Irene is a noun.

Words near goodnight Irene in the dictionary

  1. goodness me
  2. goodnesse
  3. goodnesses
  4. Goodnestone
  5. goodnight
  6. goodnight Irene
  7. goodnight nurse
  8. goodnight Vienna
  9. goodnight, Vienna
  10. goodnighted
  11. goodnighting

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: goodnight Irene (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-goodnight Irene.ogg.

Cite this entry: “goodnight Irene.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/goodnight_irene. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.