Word.ws English Dictionary

straight goods

straight goods noun: the truth; the facts.

Noun

straight goods pl (plural only)

  1. (idiomatic, plural, plural-only, often preceded by the) The truth; the facts.
    • "[I]n me yout' I was d' star poople of d' Sunday school dey opens long ago at d' Five Points. That's straight goods, see!"1900, Sandburrs, Alfred Henry Lewis, p. 188 (Google books)
    • All the same, where did the straight goods leave off and the horseshit begin?1975, Matt Braun, Bloody Hand, →ISBN, page 31
  2. (idiomatic, plural, plural-only, often preceded by the) Someone or something authentic.
    • Is she the straight goods, or is she a gold digger trying to con him?1994 May 10, Guy Gugliotta, “Capital Notebook”, in Washington Post, retrieved 01 May 2016
    • There is no hype about the musicians, no fancy dress, no gimmick to catch the wandering eye. They are simply the straight goods—trenchant musicianship and first-rate ensemble.2003 October 31, R. M. Campbell, “Ensemble is sheer artistry, pure and simple”, in Seattle Post-Intelligencer, retrieved 01 May 2016

Examples of straight goods in a sentence

  • The News wrote that the mayor “let loyalty get the better of his duty to provide the public with straight goods.”2011 September 2, Michael Barbaro, “Bloomberg Is Chastised Over Silence on Deputy”, in New York Times, retrieved 01 May 2016:
  • Over three decades of writing about transit in the Toronto region has landed me in a stupor, unable to give readers the straight goods on our transit needs.2015 January 12, Royson James, “Let’s clear our heads and rethink this transit mess”, in The Star, Toronto, Canada, retrieved 01 May 2016:

Questions about straight goods

What does straight goods mean?
Straight goods means the truth; the facts.
How do you use straight goods in a sentence?
The News wrote that the mayor “let loyalty get the better of his duty to provide the public with straight goods.”
What part of speech is straight goods?
Straight goods is a noun.

Words near straight goods in the dictionary

  1. straight flush
  2. straight flushes
  3. straight forward
  4. straight from the horse's mouth
  5. straight from the shoulder
  6. straight goods
  7. straight hit
  8. straight hits
  9. straight jacket
  10. straight jackets
  11. straight job

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: straight goods (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-straight goods.ogg.

Cite this entry: “straight goods.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/straight_goods. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.