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

• have someone to rights
• set the world to rights

See also

• bang to rights
• by rights
• dead to rights
• put right