by rights
English
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -aɪts
Prepositional phrase
by rights
- (idiomatic) Properly, in justice.
- The post of vice-president should, by rights, have been given to John.
- 2007 September 27, Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood, distributed by Paramount Vantage & Miramax Films, spoken by Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis):
- The rest will be speculators, that's men trying to get between you and the oilmen to get some of the money that ought, by rights, come to you.
- 2011, Eilidh Nisbet, Giddy Old School: The Diary of a Swot 1948-1951 (page 268)
- By rights I ought to have been lolling in bed this morning, but Nancy was ill and I had to goalkeep for the Second.
Synonyms
- (properly): by all rights, in fairness
Translations
properly, in justice
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See also
- dead to rights
- to rights