have a good time

Enjoy yourself in what you are about to do. (Often said when someone is about to leave for an event.) Bill: I'm leaving for the party now. Father: Have a good time. Sue: Tonight is the formal dance at the Palmer House, and I'm going. Mary: Have a good time. I'm watching television right here.

Enjoy oneself, as in I hope you have a good time at the beach. This idiom, also used as an imperative, dates from 16th-century England, where it was popular until the late 1600s and died out. Samuel Pepys, in a diary entry of March 1, 1666, wrote, "I went and had as good a time as heart could wish." In America it continued to be used, and in the 1800s it reappeared in British speech as well. Also see hard time; show one a good time.