Dictionary

honest-to-goodness en · ADJ

Meanings

1. (attributive) Real; genuine.
   • [']I'm a real, slam-bang, honest-to-goodness, three-fisted humdinger. I'm a bona fide supraman.' 'Superman?' Clevinger cried. 'Superman?' 'Supraman,' Yossarian corrected. 1961 (republished 2010), Joseph Heller, Catch-22, London: Vintage Books, ISBN 978-0-09-955218-5, page 22
   • At first glance, Lincoln seemed caught in a time warp—a place of 1930s tourist cabins and Mom-and-Pop diners where one could get honest-to-goodness milk shakes, made in a blender with real ice cream. 2003, Alston Chase, “Ah, Wilderness!”, in Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist, New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, part 1 (The Unabomber: Crimes and Questions), pages 102–103:
   • Is the clam chowder made with honest-to-goodness clams?
   • Captain Mark heard about it; and dropped in after school to commend his protege. "Young lady, that's the most honest-to-goodness useful thing I ever heard hail from a schoolroom!" 2011, John Rogers, Clara Nickerson Boden, The Cut of Her Jib, page 82:

Forms

honest-to-goodness en · ADV

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative, not-comparable) Alternative form of honest to goodness.
   alt of honest to goodness

Relateds

real McCoy