kiss good-bye

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kiss (someone or something) goodbye

1. To give someone a kiss when parting. Come kiss your mother goodbye before you leave!

2. To lose or end something, especially suddenly; to be forced to accept such a loss or end. You were caught drinking on school property? Well, you can kiss your brand new car goodbye, mister! After my horse lost in the final race, I kissed all the money I'd won that day at the track goodbye. You do realize that you'll be kissing all your benefits goodbye if you decide to work as a freelancer, right?

kiss goodbye to (someone or something)

1. Literally, to give someone a kiss when parting. Come kiss goodbye to your mother before you leave!

2. To lose or end something, especially suddenly; to be forced to accept such a loss or end. You were caught drinking on school property? Well, you can kiss goodbye to your brand new car, mister! After my horse lost the final race, I kissed goodbye to all the money I'd won that day at the track. You do realize that you'll be kissing goodbye to all the benefits the company has to offer if you decide to work as a freelancer?

kiss something good-bye

to anticipate or experience the loss of something. If you leave your camera on a park bench, you can kiss it good-bye. You kissed your wallet good-bye when you left it in the store.

kiss good-bye

Be forced to regard as lost, ruined, or hopeless, as in Now that both kids are sick, we'll have to kiss our vacation in Florida good-bye. This usage ironically alludes to a genuine good-bye kiss. [Colloquial; c. 1900] Also see kiss off, def. 2.

See also: kiss

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

See also:

References in classic literature ?

We see visiting young ladies stand on the stoop, and laugh, and kiss good-bye, and flirt their fans and say "Come soon--now do--you've been just as mean as ever you can be--mother's dying to see you--and we've moved into the new house, O such a love of a place!--so convenient to the post office and the church, and the Young Men's Christian Association; and we do have such fishing, and such carrying on, and such swimming- matches in the back yard--Oh, you must come--no distance at all, and if you go down through by St.

View in context

If Anderson is re-elected will he kiss good-bye to Liverpool's UNESCO World Heritage status, build houses over a site with methane leaks and let developers build over Liverpool's parks and green spaces?

Heritage-harming homes; SUNDAY SHOUT

can "kiss good-bye to all its world energy suppliers" and truly be independent raises some questions of its own.

Rising oil, gas production gives substance to energy independence

If this invasion of right-wing christian tyranny isn't stopped in its tracks, kiss good-bye to every noble premise on which democracy and the US Constitution rest.

Thoroughly disgusted in Wildwood Missouri

you can kiss good-bye to cracked, chapped mouths and say hello to luscious lips with Lancome's new Aqua Fusion Lips.

Style file

The beads taste a little strange, but using them will kiss good-bye to cracks and flakes.

Valentine Fashion: Beauty: Five of the best lip balms

For if City continue in this vein, they can surely kiss good-bye to any hopes of automatic promotion, let alone any chance of making the play-offs.

FOOTBALL: It's all going horribly wrong; SKY BLUES 0 NOTTM FOR 0

Unless your government listens to what ordinary people are saying, you can kiss good-bye to Downing Street.

Listen to ordinary people; Chief Political Commentator, on the risk Labour is running with its voters

Voice after voice in smooth impartial drone Erects horrific in his darkening brain A timber framework, where agape, alone Bright life will kiss good-bye the cheek of Cain.

In the dock

Plus, if all bullets capable of penetrating bulletproof vests are banned, the industry can kiss good-bye the sale of virtually all high power rifle ammo - and, of course, high power rifles since a gun is no good without bullets.

Justice Department proposals threaten gun dealers

Rovers can just about kiss good-bye to their play-off hopes after this failure to grab all three points.

Play-off bid looks Rover 'n out, Aldo

Kiss good-bye the old minutes/old business/new business/adjournment routine.

Advanced agenda-writing: tactics to use before you call the meeting to order

That's one of the main reasons I'm not quite ready for my first date - I'm not sure how my parents are going to react, and it would be embarrassing if whomever I went on this date with saw that my mom was standing there in the doorway giving me a kiss good-bye and crying.

My sex life, chapter one

At the moment Gareth has no wife to kiss good-bye. Not even a girlfriend to cry over him.

I gave the kids their Christmas presents early ... I wanted to see their smiles; As the Royal Scots head out to do their tour of duty in the Gulf, soldiers and their families face a lonely festive season

Let's hope the fans won't be let down because if goals don't start being delivered soon, then the club can kiss good-bye to any hopes of a half- decent campaign.

Andy Turner on the Sky Blues scene; Soltvedt's sale could prove to be worse blow than losing Huckerby