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cheerio

[cheer-ee-oh, cheer-ee-oh]Chiefly British
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interjection
  1. goodbye; goodbye and good luck.
  2. (used as a toast to one's drinking companions.)
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noun, plural cheer·i·os.
  1. a goodbye or farewell.
  2. a toast of “cheerio!”
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Origin of cheerio

1905–10; see cheero; source of -i- is unclear
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

adieugoodbyesendoffbye-byevaledictionsalutationpartingciaocheerioadiosleave-takingGodspeedfarewellsend-offarrivedercibyesayonarata-tatoodle-oo

Examples from the Web for cheerio

Historical Examples

  • Then he bent over her hand in a fashion more courtly than the “Cheerio!”

    The Golden Face

    William Le Queux

  • Well, cheerio, and good hunting, and all that sort of thing.

    Dave Dawson at Casablanca

    Robert Sydney Bowen

  • "Hello, old thing, cheerio and all the rest of it," Huntsman whinnied lovingly.

British Dictionary definitions for cheerio

cheerio

sentence substitute informal, mainly British
  1. a farewell greeting
  2. a drinking toast
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noun
  1. NZ a type of small sausage
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for cheerio

upbeat parting exclamation, British, 1910, from cheer.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper