Definition of "do-gooder" [do-gooder]

• A naive idealist who supports philanthropic or humanitarian causes or reforms. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "There's no beating "The Interrupters" as a prime example of the so-called "do-gooder" documentary, except that it's actually good."
• "She had put up with being called a do-gooder, a chump."
• "Then there is this one from Stephen Budiansky in the New York Times, attacking the local foods movement as threatening to "devolve into another one of those self-indulgent -- and self-defeating -- do-gooder dogmas.""