Gooden
name, verb ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To make good; improve; better; perfect. transitive
"For many years we have endeavored to comprehend how a/b could transform highly intelligent and in many respects 'model' girls and women (and sometimes boys and men) into unwitting bystanders and accomplices to their own torture and impending death while remaining convinced that they are being perfected and goodened?"
- 2 To perambulate, usually town to town, collecting alms, gifts, or small gratuities before Christmas-time, usually on St. Thomas's Day. dialectal, intransitive
"Phoebe, in support of a good old Sussex custom, regularly, on St. Thomas's Day, December 21st, went out "Goodening," visiting well-to-do parishioners, to gossip upon the past, over hot elderberry wine and plum cake, and to receive doles, either in money or materials, [...]"
- 3 To become good. intransitive
- 4 To grow; improve; prosper. UK, dialectal, intransitive
- 1 A surname.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"For many years we have endeavored to comprehend how a/b could transform highly intelligent and in many respects 'model' girls and women (and sometimes boys and men) into unwitting bystanders and accomplices to their own torture and impending death while remaining convinced that they are being perfected and goodened?"
Etymology
From good + -en. Compare Middle English goden, godien (“to make good, become good, endow with goods”), from Old English gōdian (“to improve, get better; make better; endow, enrich”). More at good.
Back-formation from goodening, an alteration of gooding (“to receive goods or goodies”), believed to be derived from goody or perhaps a survival of Middle English goden, godien (“to make good, become good, endow with goods”), from Old English gōdian (“to improve, get better; make better; endow, enrich”). Alternative etymology derives this term from earlier hoodening, hodening perhaps a corruption of Woden (“Odin”).
Related phrases
More for "gooden"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.