to rights

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Prepositional phrase

to rights

  1. Into proper order; properly.
    My shoulder was dislocated. It was agony to have it put to rights.
    I felt ill, but some fresh air and iced water set me to rights.
  2. (obsolete, informal) At once; immediately.
    • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. [] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: [] Benj[amin] Motte, [], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):
      Then they knocked off some of the boards for the use of the ship, and when they had got all they had a mind for, let the hull drop into the sea, which, by reason of the many breaches made in the bottom and sides, sunk to rights.

Derived terms

See also

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