Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
adj
Correct, satisfactory.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, informal, not-comparable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: A-okay, all right, cromulent, fine, hunky-dory
Antonyms: none provided
History
Origin uncertain. Chiefly and originally British slang. Possibly from an Indo-Aryan language: compare Hindi ठीक है, बाबू (ṭhīk hai, bābū, “it's all right, sir”). The phrase could have been picked up by British personnel in India before independence and spread in modified form to the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the Commonwealth. It may also be a corruption from French: "ce que t'es beau", "how beautiful you are", adopted similarly to "toodeloo' (bye-bye), which is a corruption of "À toute à l'heure" (see you later, today). Likely from WW1 Tommies. Alternately, it may be an extended version of that's the ticket, possibly influenced by peekaboo. Attested in English since the 1920s.
