right as rain

English

WOTD – 13 July 2009

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Adjective

right as rain (not comparable)

1. (simile, colloquial) Very good; all in order; healthy.
   • 1894, George Augustus Sala, Things I Have Seen and People I Have Known:

     So I went to him [Thackeray d. 1863] while he was at breakfast in Onslow Square, on the morning of the banquet, and asked him if the speech was " all right." "As right as rain," he replied.

   • 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 63:

     ‘I’ve just made the rounds,’ he said, ‘and everything looks as right as rain.’

   • 1999, Frank McCourt, Tis: A Memoir, page 322:

     Malachy brought me aspirins and vitamins and told me I'd be as right as rain in the morning and I wondered what that meant, right as rain.

2. (simile, colloquial) Correct; factually accurate.
   • 1894, Robert Barr, chapter 23, in In the Midst of Alarms:

     "To whom are you engaged? As I understand your talk, it is to Miss Bartlett. Am I right?"
     "Right as rain, Renny."

Synonyms

• right as a trivet
• right as ninepence
• righter than rain

Translations

very good; healthy

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 非常好 (fēicháng hǎo), 非常健康 (fēicháng jiànkāng)

• Finnish: terve kuin pukki (fi) (healthy)
• Polish: zdrów jak ryba (pl)
• Russian: здоро́вый (ru) (zdoróvyj)
• Spanish: como nuevo
• Ukrainian: здоро́вий (zdoróvyj)

correct; factually accurate

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 十分準確／十分准确 (shífēn zhǔnquè)

• Dutch: klopt als een bus
• Finnish: tosi kuin vesi
• Russian: ве́рный (ru) (vérnyj)
• Spanish: más razón que un santo