goody two shoes
goody two shoes noun: a goody-goody; a person who is almost always perfectly well-behaved, with an implication of smugness.
Noun
goody two shoes (plural goody two shoes)
- A goody-goody; a person who is almost always perfectly well-behaved, with an implication of smugness.
- […] When jabbed by ethicists, he at first asserted, "I'm not Goody Two-Shoes," before acknowledging a minor lapse.2006 June 18, William Safire, quoting Harry Reid, “Logoloco”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
- [Jeremy Hunt] is charming, thoughtful and amusing in private, and one ally said he was "almost a goody two shoes".2012 April 24, Patrick Wintour, “Jeremy Hunt: the 'goody two shoes' caught up in BSkyB scandal”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- Synonyms:
- boy scout
Synonyms of goody two shoes
Forms of goody two shoes
| plural | goody two shoes |
|---|---|
| alternative form | goody-two-shoes |
| alternative form | goody two-shoes |
| alternative form | goodie two shoes |
| alternative form | goodie two-shoes |
Origin of goody two shoes
From goody (“goodwife, obsolete title of respect for a woman”) + two + shoes. Generally considered to have originated with the title character in The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (1765), which indeed seems to be the source of its later use as a common noun with the present meaning. However, as a proper noun with implications of wealth rather than goodness, it is also found earlier, c. 1687, in the writings of Charles Cotton: “Why, what then; Goody Two-Shoes, what if it be? / Hold you, if you can, your tittle-tattle, quoth he.”
Words formed from goody two shoes
Questions about goody two shoes
- What does goody two shoes mean?
- Goody two shoes means a goody-goody; a person who is almost always perfectly well-behaved, with an implication of smugness.
- What part of speech is goody two shoes?
- Goody two shoes is a noun.
- What is the plural of goody two shoes?
- The plural of goody two shoes is goody two shoes.
Words near goody two shoes in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: goody two shoes (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:
Cite this entry: “goody two shoes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/goody_two_shoes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.