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By rights   /baɪ raɪts/   Listen
noun
Right  n.  
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. "Seldom your opinions err; Your eyes are always in the right."
(c)
A just judgment or action; that which is true or proper; justice; uprightness; integrity. "Long love to her has borne the faithful knight, And well deserved, had fortune done him right."
2.
That to which one has a just claim. Specifically:
(a)
That which one has a natural claim to exact. "There are no rights whatever, without corresponding duties."
(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. "Born free, he sought his right." "Hast thou not right to all created things?" "Men have no right to what is not reasonable."
(d)
Privilege or immunity granted by authority.
3.
The right side; the side opposite to the left. "Led her to the Souldan's right."
4.
In some legislative bodies of Europe (as in France), those members collectively who are conservatives or monarchists. See Center, 5.
5.
The outward or most finished surface, as of a piece of cloth, a carpet, etc.
At all right, at all points; in all respects. (Obs.)
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. "He should himself use it by right." "I should have been a woman by right."
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.)
(b)
At once; directly. (Obs. or Colloq.)
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.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"By rights" Quotes from Famous Books



... the direction of unqualified imperialism. The utterances of Emperor William surpass the speeches of the Czar himself, in avowing all the pretensions and fictions of monarchy in the Middle Ages. The Hohenzollern potentate openly makes the pretence of governing his subjects by rights and prerogatives in nowise derived from the people, but wholly derived from himself and his grandfather. Why should Germany be an Empire and France a Republic? How could such an amazing historical result come into the world? The French Republic and the new Empire of Germany were not made by ...
— Notable Events of the Nineteenth Century - Great Deeds of Men and Nations and the Progress of the World • Various

... By rights the cadets should have been too leg weary for parade, but if Staunton (and the young ladies) wished to see how the V. M. I. did things, why, of course! In the rich afternoon light, band playing, Major Smith at their ...
— The Long Roll • Mary Johnston

... came to Skinner. How could he square the fact that McLaughlin & Perkins, Inc., had turned him down with the way he'd bragged about his value to the firm? Skinner frowned deeply. McLaughlin had no business to refuse him—a percentage of the money he handled was his by rights. Somehow he felt that he had been denied that which ...
— Skinner's Dress Suit • Henry Irving Dodge

... and forty-five francs! But he had not got such an amount. On the previous day he had drunk too much cognac, just like a mere sub, and had lost shockingly at cards. It served him right—he ought to have known better! And if he was so lame he richly deserved it too; by rights, in fact, his leg ...
— Nana, The Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille • Emile Zola

... as if I couldn't git the color rightly set in my head," she remarked; "'t a'n't quiet laylock, nor yit vi'let, and there ought, by rights, to be quilled ribbon round the neck, though the Doctor might consider it too gay; but never mind, he'd dress you in drab or slate if he could, and I dunno, ...
— The Story Of Kennett • Bayard Taylor


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