goody-two-shoes

goody two-shoes

1. adjective (used as a modifier before a noun) Of or having prudish, self-righteous, or rigidly moral standards. Many have been critical of the agency as being nothing but a goody two-shoes organization more concerned with telling people how to behave than serving their best interests.
2. An exceedingly or haughtily prudish, self-righteous, or rigidly moral person; someone who conforms inflexibly to the rules or the law. Mary is such a goody two-shoes, always squealing to the teacher when one of us does something against the rules. Our gang would have control of half the city if that goody two-shoes hadn't somehow gotten himself elected governor.
See also: goody
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

goody-two-shoes

A self-righteous, smugly virtuous person. The term comes from the title and main character of a nursery tale, The History of Goody Two-Shoes (1765), believed to have been written by Oliver Goldsmith. She owned but a single shoe, and when she was given a pair of shoes she was so delighted that she showed them to everyone, saying, “Two shoes.” Today the term is often shortened to goody-goody, as in “She’s a real goody-goody, always playing up to her boss.”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • a goody two-shoes
  • goody two-shoes
  • let he that is without sin cast the first stone
  • let he who is without sin cast the first stone
  • let him that is without sin cast the first stone
  • let him who is without sin cast the first stone
  • grammar Nazi
  • goody
  • goody gumdrops
  • bulletproof
References in periodicals archive
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The last one was the worst and he's still causing me problems as he tells everyone I'm a goody-two-shoes tease.
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US critic roasts Ramsay
The use of an offshore company to buy and sell the party's HQ stinks to high heaven after Goody-Two-Shoes Cameron's Conservatives avoided pounds 626,000 in stamp duty.
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Matthew plays goody-two-shoes doctor Jack Shephard while Josh is bad-boy con artist Sawyer.
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He''s turned from a boring, homeloving, goody-two-shoes into a cad and bounder, dangerous to know but infinitely more attractive to women.
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I USED to think that Charlotte Church was a horrible goody-two-shoes type who liked nothing better than singing religious ditties to old grannies.
Juliet Lawrence Wilson's column: Charlotte Church
Do beauty gurus have goody-two-shoes bedtime routines?
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