to rights

English

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, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels: Voyage to Brobdingnag, Chapter 8, Part 8:

     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.

See also

• dead to rights
• bang to rights