three cheers for

1. 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.

Example Sentences

And three cheers for those Van Nuys players recruited out of P.E. class.

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The band first broke through with 2004’s “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.”

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Along the way, he tossed his hat in the air and gave three cheers for Davis.

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Three cheers for Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs’ efforts to counter pernicious intentional lying by Republicans.

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Three cheers for Lorraine Hartmann and her suggestion to take a litter bag with you on your daily walk/jog/run.

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