1596. Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, i., 2. As not ten housewives pewter, again a good time, shews more bright to the world than he! [= some festival, ‘when housewives are careful to set out their furniture to the best advantage.’—Note by Whalley, given in Cunningham’s Gifford’s Jonson (1870)].
1863. A. Trollope, Rachel Ray, ii., 6., 109. Eating cake and drinking currant wine, but not having, on the whole, what our American friends call a good time of it.
1864. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. xxxviii. And what have you been doing? Had a good time?
1883. Bret Harte, In the Carquinez Woods, ch. ix. But we must keep it dark until after I marry Nellie, don’t you see. Then we’ll have a good time all round, and I’ll stand the drinks. [[180]]
1892. R. L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne, The Wrecker, p. 14. My idea of man’s chief end was to enrich the world with things of beauty, and have a fairly good time myself while doing so.
Good ’un, subs. phr. (colloquial).—1. A man, woman, or thing of decided and undoubted merit. Cf., Good-girl.
1828–45. T. Hood, Poems, vi., p. 254 [ed. 1846]. A good ’un to look at but bad to go.
1854. Martin and Aytoun, Bon Gaultier Ballads. ‘The Dirge of a Drinker.’ Like a good ’un as he is.
1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 160. He’s a real good un, and when his party plank the stuff down it’s generally a moral.
2. (colloquial).—An expression of derisive unbelief: e.g., a lie. See Whopper.