good egg

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good egg

/ˈɡʊd ɛɡ/ US, UK

Where it comes from

Probably a humorous antonym of bad egg (“someone whose behaviour is reprehensible or irresponsible; a rogue”).

The earliest known usage of the phrase was by Rudyard Kipling in his 1904 book "Traffics & Discoveries": "'Good egg!' quoth Moorshed, and brought his hand down on the wide shoulders with the smack of a beaver's tail."

noun good eggs

UK, US, idiomatic A good person, someone to be trusted; a friend. The chemist and the bacteriologist gave him the third degree and, like most criminals, it was found difficult to tell just when a good egg began to be bad, and it appeared that it depended largely on how he was handled, especially in his youth, […]
Opposite: bad egg

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MLA

"good egg." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/good%20egg. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

good egg. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/good%20egg

Chicago

"good egg." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/good%20egg.

BibTeX

@misc{good_egg_2026,
  title = {good egg},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/good%20egg},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}