Definition of "riddance" []

• A deliverance from or removal of something unwanted or undesirable: "Compeyson took it easy as a good riddance for both sides” ( Charles Dickens). (noun)
• The act of ridding: riddance of household pests. (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.

• "The officer broke out with enthusiasm at the idea of a riddance from the French alliance, and said that every man of the troops in question felt the same."
• "Can I point out that "riddance" is also misspelled?"
• "As his stepmother had not even taken leave of him, but had entrusted his departure to the relative with whom he had been lately living, it was considered as an act of "riddance," and accepted as such by her party, and even vaguely acquiesced in by the boy himself."