GOODMAN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Goodman

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/gˈʊdmən/ Listen

noun

Goodman n.

A familiar appellation of civility, equivalent to "My friend", "Good sir", "Mister;" sometimes used ironically. (Obs.) "With you, goodman boy, an you please."

A husband; the master of a house or family; often used in speaking familiarly. (Archaic) "Say ye to the goodman of the house,... Where is the guest-chamber?" Note: In the early colonial records of New England, the term goodman is frequently used as a title of designation, sometimes in a respectful manner, to denote a person whose first name was not known, or when it was not desired to use that name; in this use it was nearly equivalent to Mr. This use was doubtless brought with the first settlers from England.

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Etymology of 'Goodman'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Goodman" Quotes from Famous Books

... I cannot guess what she means. A more honourable connexion she could not form, that's certain. As for money and land, that used to be her husband's business rather than hers; I really think she hates you for having the rank which her husband has not, and perhaps for not having the lands that her goodman has. But I should only vex you to say more about it—here ...

— Bride of Lammermoor • Sir Walter Scott

... Dogb. Goodman Verges, sir, speaks a little off the matter: an old man, sir, and his wits are not so blunt, as, God help, I would desire they were; but, in faith, honest as the skin ...

— Much Ado About Nothing • William Shakespeare [Knight edition]

... KNOX and GOODMAN are at E. vj and F. ij. At the end of this work is a kind of Table of Contents, each reference being illustrated with a woodcut depicting the irightful cruelties with which the Author in the text charges the Protestants. One woodcut is a curious representation ...

— The First Blast of the Trumpet against the monstrous regiment - of Women • John Knox

... one of the many days during which I went up to town, after a long afternoon with Goodman and Smale, in the course of which they had told me they would probably require me to call at their office to meet one of the most influential tenants at nine the next morning, I met, on leaving their office, Marchmont—Marchmont ...

— April's Lady - A Novel • Margaret Wolfe Hungerford

... accommodation here the night,' he said, as he looked at us somewhat suspiciously; 'the goodman has died and lies steekit in his coffin, but ye can come in for shelter if ye have ...

— Border Ghost Stories • Howard Pease

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