Slang dictionary
well wishes
Or well-wishes [ wel wish-iz ]
What does well wishes mean?
Well wishes are kind words, either spoken or written, that share a desire for a person to have good health or good things or that show them support.
Usually, we give or send well wishes, often in the form of a card or a social media post. It doesn’t matter if you speak or write you well wishes, though. What matters is sharing your positive thoughts for someone.
You might give well wishes to a friend or family if they are going through a tough time or an illness. You can also give well wishes just to let someone know you care about them.
Example: When Janelle heard that Trevor was sick, she sent her well wishes in a card.
Where does well wishes come from?
The first records of well wishes come from around 1595. It combines well, meaning “satisfactory, pleasing, or good” and wish, meaning “an instance of desiring or hoping for something.” The first records of the related verb well-wish come from around 1570 and those for the noun well-wisher come from around 1590. When you wish someone well, you hope someone is well or that they have a good life.
For most of history, well wishes took the form of kind words that were either said out loud or written down in a letter or greeting card. Out of courtesy, the person receiving the kind words would thank the other person for their well wishes.
With the rise of the internet and social media, well wishes now often take the form of kind words in an email, a social media post, a comment, or a direct message. As was the case before, a person will usually thank people for sending them well wishes.
Thanks for all the well wishes, birthday was good, 8 years into my rugby career now , scary that.
— Gengey (@EllisGenge) February 16, 2021
So as you might have already heard from @thorazos, I have covid. The good news is I'm already feeling better than I did initially—I hope it continues in that direction. Thank you to everyone for your well wishes!
— Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) February 15, 2021
Examples of well wishes
Who uses well wishes?
People often use social media to send well wishes and to thank others who have sent well wishes to them.
thank you to everyone for all the well-wishes while i recuperate from the one push-up i did yesterday 💕
— taylor garron (@taylorgarron) February 15, 2021
Quick broken arm/wrist update, I will be having surgery on Wednesday. Thank you for all the well wishes. 🤕
— Angela Hutti (@AngWxGrl) February 15, 2021
Varisty lost a close one, 35-28 to a good Pattonville team. We want to send our well wishes to Ella Mantz as she recovers from her injury suffered in tonights game.
— Summit Girls Hoops (@RSHS_Basketball) February 23, 2021
The singular well wish is very rarely used. The expression well wishes is similar to the phrase best wishes.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of well wishes like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of well wishes that will help our users expand their word mastery.