Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also good ’un, merry one) a joke; usu. as that’s a good one.

[1623		J. Howell Familiar Letters (1737) I 3 Feb. 164: He told me also a merry one; how a Captain that had a wooden Leg [...] had it shatter’d to pieces by a Cannon-bullet: His Soldiers crying, A Surgeon [...] no, no, said he, A Carpenter, a Carpenter will serve the turn].
1716		J. Addison Drummer IV i: That is a good one indeed!
1796		Sporting Mag. Nov. IX 83/1: Ha! ha! rat me! but at last I’ve said a good one.
1809		Yankey in London 102: The cant expressions now in vogue are [...] ‘that’s a good one’.
1825		Egan Life of an Actor 126: Gag burst into an immoderate fit of laughter, exclaiming, ‘Come, that’s a good one!’.
1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 117: Afraid! [...] That’s a good ’un.
1842		C. Mathews Career of Puffer Hopkins 288: That is a good one! And he burst into another scornful laugh.
1846		Thackeray Diary of C. Jeames de la Pluche in Works III (1898) 414: I say, Huffy, old boy! ISN’T this a good un?
1858		Bedford Gaz. (PA) 19 Mar. 1/6: A western correspondent of Harper’s Magazine gets off the following ‘good ’un’ .
1883		R.L. Stevenson Treasure Island 66: But dash my buttons! that was a good ’un [...] he began to laugh again.
1894		A. Hope Dolly Dialogues 35: Well, that’s a good ’un — ha-ha-ha!
1904		Ade ‘The Fable of the Poor Woman’ in True Bills 7: He would call on her and spring a Good One every little while. Whenever he told a ripe old Scandinavian Wheeze or an Irish Bull she would let out a Whoop.
1917		R. Lardner ‘Three Kings and a Pair’ in Gullible’s Travels 38: That’s a pretty good one about the ten thousand a year. But I suppose it’s funnier when he tells it himself.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 91: That’s an awfully good one that’s going the rounds about Reuben J. and the son.
1932		J. Betjeman ‘The City’ in Coll. Poems (1970) 7: Young men who wear on office stools / The ties of minor public schools, / Each learning how to be a sinner / And tell ‘a good one’ after dinner.
1946		J. Evans Halo in Blood (1988) 99: Ha, ha! That’s a good one, all right.
1959		A. Sillitoe ‘On Saturday Afternoon’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 104: She cackled at his bloody joke so long and loud you’d think she never heard such a good ’un.
1963		C. Wood ‘John Thomas’ in Cockade (1965) Act I: Oh stone me – oh that’s a good one ... stone me that’s rich.
1970		S. Naipaul Fireflies 172: I must say that’s a good one. You should have been one of the boys. They would like the kind of joke you does make.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘Wanted’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] That’s a good ’un innit Rodders, eh?
1992		P. McCabe Butcher Boy (1993) 9: That was a good one I thought.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 125: They laughed and slapped skin, highstepped in place like someone had just cracked a good one.

2. (also good ’un) an implausible statement, thus a lie.

1825		J. Neal Brother Jonathan II 19: Hoity! toity! that’s a good one! – I know better.
1839		C. Dance Alive and Merry I ii: sharp: I don’t believe you’re Mr. Perkins at all. I can prove that he’s dead. per.: Come, that’s a good one.
1844		C. Selby London By Night I ii: That’s a good un – a crossing-sweeper giving credit!
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 229: Well, that is a good one!
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 53: This gentleman’s been a tacklin’ me a good ’un, I can tell you! — says that he’s got your writing to show for summat or other.
1878		J. Hatton Cruel London I 72: That were a good ’un.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Oct. 17/1: By-the-by, where are all the raft-experience liars? That profession should be prolific of ‘good ’uns.’.
1914		Joyce ‘Two Gallants’ Dubliners (1956) 49: ‘Of all the good ones ever I heard,’ he said, ‘that emphatically takes the biscuit.’.
1916		‘Anzac’ On the Anzac Trail 86: We said we had come on a matrimonial project (we thought we might as well tell a good one when we were about it; they are all liars in those parts, anyway).
1944		J. Cary Horse’s Mouth (1948) 85: ‘Religion and humanity.’ ‘That’s a good one, son. That’s all right [...] For those it’s all right for.’.

3. (also good ’un) a hard blow.

1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 55/1: (He strikes Punch over the nose, which is returned pro and con.) Beadle. That’s a good ’un.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 15 June 5/2: [H]e had got a couple of good ones home on Donoghue’s food box.
1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Brief Debut of Tildy’ in Four Million (1915) 256: I slapped him a good one, side of the face.
1922		‘Sapper’ Black Gang 393: Nothing like a good one straight to the jaw for producing a devout manner of living.
1934		R.L. Bellem ‘Sleeping Dogs’ in Spicy Detective Sept. 🌐 She wriggled free and slammed me a good one on the jaw.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 110: She come right across the floor ’n slapped me a good one.
1956		H. Ellison ‘Made in Heaven’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 182: Rubbing his arm where I knew I’d caught him a good one.
1970		G.V. Higgins ‘Dillon Explained That He Was Frightened’ in N. Amer. Rev. Fall 43/1: I hit them a couple of good ones and we throw them out in the street.
1992		I. Rankin Wolfman 122: She fuckin’ clocked me, didn’t she? Got me a good one, too. Couple of loose teeth.
2014		M. McBride Swollen Red Sun 80: ‘Somebody musta flopped him a good one’ .
2018		R. O’Neill ‘Ocker’ in The Drover’s Wives (2019) 181: Then she walloped the bugger a good one.

4. a gullible fool, a sucker n.¹ (3a)

1887

G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 256: We caught some good ones on the trip over, and they set up a great big kick.

5. a reliable tip on which one bets.

1943

W.R. Burnett Nobody Lives Forever 4: Got what looks like a good one in the third at Aqueduct .

6. (US) a long drink; a bout of drinking.

1958		E. Gilbert Vice Trap 15: I took a good one and chased it.
2011		D.R. Pollock Devil All the Time 40: ‘They probably went out and got on a good one. Hell, from what I hear, that crippled boy could drink me under the table’.

7. see good girl under good adj.¹

8. see good ’un n. (1)