Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a witty or perceptive comment.

1819

P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 7: The amateurs are now seen in high glee enjoying their ‘steamers’; and many ‘good thinmgs’ escape from their lips.

2. an advantageous opportunity, usu. in business or in horserace gambling.

1822		Life and Trial of James Mackcoull 86: He [...] freely told her, ‘that he had been in a good thing’ – had got plenty of money, and came to make her a proposal.
1847		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 24 Jan. 4/1: [of a racehorse] He was told it was a first chop good thing, and he dropped heavily.
1853		G.J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand (1890) 243: I made two thousand last week, in the funds [...] but next year I hope to begin on a larger scale, and make a really ‘good thing’.
1854		N.Y. Clipper 14 Jan. 3/3: [I]f the plaintiff [...] should [...] endeavor to ‘get on’ a ‘good thing,’ he will receive the ‘cold shoulder’.
1856		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 23 Aug. n.p.: Sweet Jesse thinks he has got a good thing on Lizzie A— .
1859		Bell’s Life in Tasmania 6 Sept. 2/3: A most important addition to the ‘good things’ for next season is already promised in the way of Queen’s-plates, of 100 sovs each.
1863		T. Taylor Ticket-Of-Leave Man Act III: I stand to win a fiver on Pollux for the Derby, and a good thing on the Count for the Ascot Cup.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 223: ’E’s been in some real good things ’e ’as.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Jan. 13/4: [of a racehorse] ‘Vidette oughter be a good thing, don’t you think?’ said the innocent green-horn.
1889		H. Smart Long Odds II 56: ‘There is no man in England would make such a good thing of it if Damocles is first past the post at Epsom’.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 30 Dec. 6/1: [of a racehorse] A real good thing came untied in the Villers Stakes.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 4: Do n’t it kill you dead to see a swell girl—you know, a regular peach—holdin’ on to some freak with side whiskers and thinkin’ she’s got a good thing?
1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 231: Cameronian, the good thing that finished much later, carried my little bundle.
1901		‘Hugh McHugh’ Down the Line 16: I figured it out if I had bet $5 on each good thing they gave me I would have lost $400,000.
1901		D. Cotsford Society Snapshots 33: Buffy will take her down to supper, and she’ll get one or two ‘good things’ out of him before she’s through her first plover’s egg.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 29 Nov. 1/1: A well-known Perth barman has his eye on a good thing [...] he intends splicing the donah with the dollars.
1910		Sporting Times 8 Jan. 2/4: Take my tip, now, an’ I’ll put you on a good thing!
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 22 May 2nd sect. 11/2: Crowfoot, the ‘good thing’ of the last race at Ascot [...] found the sturdy little Padlock gelding, Fop, too good by a long way.
1913–14		Van Loan ‘Easy Picking’ in Taking the Count 298: Once convinced they have a ‘good thing,’ they produce the bank roll.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 26: One and all admitted that I had got hold of a good thing.
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 33: He put me onto a Good Thing. He did, blast him.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 62: Here, gentlemen, is a very good thing.
1958		Southern & Hoffenberg Candy (1970) 43: I’m always happy to invest in a . . . a really good thing.
1961		J. Scarne Complete Guide to Gambling 680: Good thing – a good bet.
1966		J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 36: He invested £750 of his ‘roll’ on a horse he considered a ‘good thing’ in the opening race.
1971		G. Astor N.Y. Cops 152: [T]he entrepreneur who catered to those [...] who suddenly came up with a good thing.
1980		Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 71: The other day I picked up a quick half-bar through backing a good thing in the National.
1995		D. Lodge Therapy (1996) 15: If you ask me, Karl is on to a good thing.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 201: Choko reckoned the colt was a stand-out good thing, too.
2001		Scorpzine Jan. 🌐 Pretty Good Solitaire, by Thomas Warfield, is one of those games. I’ve been enjoying PGS since about 1997, and now with the PGS 2000 edition, it’s time to let everyone in on a good thing.
2013		T. Peacock More You Bet 6: A ‘good thing’ might also have been referred to as a ‘sure thing,’ or a ‘certain cop,’ or a ‘sure cop,’ or a ‘dead bird’ or a ‘dead cert’.

3. (Aus./US) one who can easily be duped, a ‘sucker’.

1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 40: I got mixed up with the gang in the smoking car, and I was, as usual, a good thing.
1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 55: Rudolph Pickels, the prosecution’s ‘good thing’, almost moved the house to tears with his pathetic selection ‘All goin’ out and nothin’ comin’ in.’.
1911		S. Ford Torchy 62: I couldn’t let McCallum play a friend of mine for a good thing.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Madame La Gimp’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 244: The guy sizes up as a right good thing.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.