English

Noun

good word ‎(uncountable)

1. Used other than as an idiom: see good,‎ word.
2. Positive recommendation.
   • 2011, Roger Garfitt, The Horseman's Word, ISBN 1446476251, page 59:

     My grandfather mentioned the problem to Lord Fermoy, whom he knew through the British Legion. and Lord Fermoy said he would put in a good word.

   • 2011, George Silverman, The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, ISBN 0814416691, page 167:

     For instance, if the person worked for a large company or lived in a large apartment building, he would give them a special price on their medications and tell them that he was doing so in the hope that they would pass the good word about the store to their friends.

   • 2003, Allison A. Trites, ‎R. Glenn Wooden, & ‎Timothy R. Ashley, You Will be My Witnesses, ISBN 0865546908, page 279:

     Not surprisingly, my students rarely have a good word for good works!

3. News, recent events, especially of a positive nature
   • 2001, Paul Krebill, A Place Called Fairhavens, ISBN 146280456X, page 102:

     "Hello, Worth: What's the good word?” “I have some news for you, but I'm afraid its not 'the good word' as you say.” “OK, What's the bad news?"

   • 2006, Keith Maillard, Looking Good, ISBN 1897142099, page 418:

     He starts to thank me PROFUSELY, and I tell him to can that ****. I tell him to slip me the good word via General Delivery, Hubbard, North Dakota. "Listen, ****," I say, "send me a postcard from the Weird Land of Mooses."

4. A holy promise or teaching.
   • 2010, Phillip Cary, Good News for Anxious Christians: Ten Practical Things You Don't Have to Do, ISBN 144121397X:

     God's good word, both law and gospel, is your bulwark, your defense against bad theology and techniques of spirituality that make you anxious.

5. The Bible, especially the New Testament.
   • 1975, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine- Volume 66, page 18:

     My Emily was always after me to read the good word with her, and now that she is gone, it is my only consolation.

   • 2011 December 11, Phil Dyess-Nugent, “Review: **** On Wheels: “Pride, Pomp And Circumstance”, in A.V. Club:

     I also could have done without the scene illustrating the difficulties that an ignorant savage—or anyone whose brain is in full, working order—might have with certain passages of the Bible. Sitting in the prayer tent while Wes Studhi is conducting business, the Indians look at their copies of the good word with the same look of uncomprehending bafflement that Sid Vicious used to sometimes look at his bass, and then fall out of their chairs laughing when one smarty-pants among them allows as how she’d love to have been a fly on the wall when Mary was explaining to Joseph about how she’d gotten pregnant.