to good purpose

Idioms  

1. To effective use, as in A donation to the homeless shelter will be put to good purpose. This idiom was first recorded in 1553. Also see to little or no purpose.

---

Example Sentences

Others are less convinced that the technology will be put to good purpose.

From Washington Times • Jul. 10, 2021

She was able to take her grief and use it to good purpose.

From Washington Post • Dec. 10, 2018

She had turned her life to good purpose there, counseled fellow female prisoners on how to care for their infants and founded a nonprofit to provide tutoring for children of female prisoners.

From New York Times • Jan. 4, 2013

Teams may work together often for an hour or more, the coyote mock-chasing or otherwise playfully inviting the lethargic badger to activity when it pauses, and to good purpose.

From New York Times • Sep. 27, 2010

What he’d learned in school, and from his father, and from his own investigations—he could put it all to good purpose now.

From "The City of Ember" by Jeanne DuPrau