good-time Charlie

American  

[good-tahym] / ˈgʊdˌtaɪm /

Or good-time Charley

noun

Informal.

1. an affable, sociable, pleasure-loving man.

---

good-time Charlie Idioms  

1. Affable, convivial fellow, as in Joe was a typical good-time Charlie, always ready for a party. [Colloquial; 1920s]

---

Etymology

Origin of good-time Charlie

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

In a 2007 review of “Follies” at City Center, The Associated Press said McGrath “exudes a pugnacious, good-time Charlie conviviality that also hides insecurities. The actor also moves with the confidence of a born hoofer, particularly in his ″’The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me Blues.’″

From Seattle Times

Matthew McConaughey is at his dirt bag finest as a good-time Charlie stoner-poet named Moondog in Harmony Korine’s “The Beach Bum,” a bizarre and transfixing carnival of vulgarity and vice.

From Washington Times

Though he regarded his mother as something of a naïve romantic, and often evinced a “low-level anger about her frequent absences,” she always remained, in Mr. Maraniss’s view, “the conscience of his inner life”: he would never shed the conviction, nourished by her, that he couldn’t “sit around like some good-time Charlie,” that he was expected to do good.

From New York Times

Commodities are the market's equivalent of a good-time Charlie: They go up when the economy is booming, but they don't provide much diversification during times of stress.

From The Wall Street Journal

Larry Sabato’s classic 1983 overview of the American governorship, "Goodbye to Good-time Charlie," all but dismisses the mayoralty as a steppingstone to the governorship.

From Salon