cheer

of good cheer cheerful or optimistic. archaic

☞ The exhortation to be of good cheer occurs in several passages of the New Testament in the Authorized Version of the Bible (for example in Matthew 9:2, John 16:33, and Acts 27:22). In Middle English, cheer had the meaning 'face'. This sense of cheer is now obsolete, but the related senses of 'countenance' and 'demeanour as reflected in the countenance' survive in a number of phrases, including in good cheer and the archaic what cheer? 'how are you?'.

three cheers for - three successive hurrahs expressing (sometimes ironic) appreciation or congratulation of someone or something.

☞ Qualified approval or mild enthusiasm is sometimes expressed by two cheers for -, as in the title of E. M. Forster's book Two Cheers for Democracy (1951).

2010Guardian So we got Theresa May! She… wasn't good enough to be involved with the manifesto; she wasn't good enough to be part of the negotiating team. But apparently she's good enough to be home secretary. Three cheers for that!