good-time Charlie

or good-time Charley

[ good-tahym ]

noun

, Informal.

1. an affable, sociable, pleasure-loving man.

Word History and Origins

Origin of good-time Charlie¹

First recorded in 1955–60

Idioms and Phrases

Affable, convivial fellow, as in Joe was a typical good-time Charlie, always ready for a party . [ Colloquial ; 1920s]

Example Sentences

In a 2007 review of “Follies” at City Center, The Associated Press said McGrath “exudes a pugnacious, good-time Charlie conviviality that also hides insecurities. The actor also moves with the confidence of a born hoofer, particularly in his ″’The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me Blues.’″

From Seattle Times

Matthew McConaughey is at his dirt bag finest as a good-time Charlie stoner-poet named Moondog in Harmony Korine’s “The Beach Bum,” a bizarre and transfixing carnival of vulgarity and vice.

From Washington Times

He was also known as a good-time Charlie who served as a wingman for one of the game’s legendary night prowlers and ladies’ men, the pitcher Bo Belinsky.

From New York Times

Though he regarded his mother as something of a naïve romantic, and often evinced a “low-level anger about her frequent absences,” she always remained, in Mr. Maraniss’s view, “the conscience of his inner life”: he would never shed the conviction, nourished by her, that he couldn’t “sit around like some good-time Charlie,” that he was expected to do good.

From New York Times

Commodities are the market's equivalent of a good-time Charlie: They go up when the economy is booming, but they don't provide much diversification during times of stress.

From Wall Street Journal