- By right
- Right Right, n. [AS. right. See {Right}, a.]
1. That which is right or correct. Specifically:
(a) The straight course; adherence to duty; obedience to
lawful authority, divine or human; freedom from guilt,
-- the opposite of moral wrong.
(b) A true statement; freedom from error of falsehood;
adherence to truth or fact.
[1913 Webster]
Seldom your opinions err; Your eyes are always in the right. --Prior. [1913 Webster] (c) A just judgment or action; that which is true or proper; justice; uprightness; integrity. [1913 Webster]
Long love to her has borne the faithful knight, And well deserved, had fortune done him right. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
2. That to which one has a just claim. Specifically: (a) That which one has a natural claim to exact. [1913 Webster]
There are no rights whatever, without corresponding duties. --Coleridge. [1913 Webster] (b) That which one has a legal or social claim to do or to exact; legal power; authority; as, a sheriff has a right to arrest a criminal. (c) That which justly belongs to one; that which one has a claim to possess or own; the interest or share which anyone has in a piece of property; title; claim; interest; ownership. [1913 Webster]
Born free, he sought his right. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
Hast thou not right to all created things? --Milton. [1913 Webster]
Men have no right to what is not reasonable. --Burke. [1913 Webster] (d) Privilege or immunity granted by authority. [1913 Webster]
3. The right side; the side opposite to the left. [1913 Webster]
Led her to the Souldan's right. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
4. In some legislative bodies of Europe (as in France), those members collectively who are conservatives or monarchists. See {Center}, 5. [1913 Webster]
5. The outward or most finished surface, as of a piece of cloth, a carpet, etc. [1913 Webster]
{At all right}, at all points; in all respects. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
{Bill of rights}, a list of rights; a paper containing a declaration of rights, or the declaration itself. See under {Bill}.
{By right}, {By rights}, or {By good rights}, rightly; properly; correctly. [1913 Webster]
He should himself use it by right. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
I should have been a woman by right. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
{Divine right}, or
{Divine right of kings}, a name given to the patriarchal theory of government, especially to the doctrine that no misconduct and no dispossession can forfeit the right of a monarch or his heirs to the throne, and to the obedience of the people.
{To rights}. (a) In a direct line; straight. [R.] --Woodward. (b) At once; directly. [Obs. or Colloq.] --Swift.
{To set to rights}, {To put to rights}, to put in good order; to adjust; to regulate, as what is out of order.
{Writ of right} (Law), a writ which lay to recover lands in fee simple, unjustly withheld from the true owner. --Blackstone. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
