three cheers for
Save This Word!
Good for, hurrah for, congratulations to, as in Three cheers for our mayor! Hip, hip, hooray! Why one should shout one's encouragement or approbation three times rather than two or four is unclear. A shouted cheer presumably originated as a nautical practice, if we are to believe Daniel Defoe in Captain Singleton (1720): “We gave them a cheer, as the seamen call it.” Three cheers was first recorded in 1751. The term is also used sarcastically, when one is not really offering congratulations, as in So you finally passed; well, three cheers for you.
QUIZ
WILL YOU SAIL OR STUMBLE ON THESE GRAMMAR QUESTIONS?
Smoothly step over to these common grammar mistakes that trip many people up. Good luck!
Question 1 of 7
Fill in the blank: I can’t figure out _____ gave me this gift.
Words nearby three cheers for
three-birds, “Three Blind Mice”, three-body problem, three-card monte, three-card trick, three cheers for, three-color, three-colour, three-cornered, three-D, three-day event
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.