from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Right \Right\, n. [AS. right. See {Right}, a.]
1. That which is right or correct. Specifically:
(a) The straight course; adherence to duty; obedience to
lawful authority, divine or human; freedom from guilt,
-- the opposite of moral wrong.
(b) A true statement; freedom from error of falsehood;
adherence to truth or fact.
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Seldom your opinions err;
Your eyes are always in the right. --Prior.
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(c) A just judgment or action; that which is true or
proper; justice; uprightness; integrity.
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Long love to her has borne the faithful knight,
And well deserved, had fortune done him right.
--Dryden.
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2. That to which one has a just claim. Specifically:
(a) That which one has a natural claim to exact.
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There are no rights whatever, without
corresponding duties. --Coleridge.
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(b) That which one has a legal or social claim to do or to
exact; legal power; authority; as, a sheriff has a
right to arrest a criminal.
(c) That which justly belongs to one; that which one has a
claim to possess or own; the interest or share which
anyone has in a piece of property; title; claim;
interest; ownership.
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Born free, he sought his right. --Dryden.
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Hast thou not right to all created things?
--Milton.
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Men have no right to what is not reasonable.
--Burke.
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(d) Privilege or immunity granted by authority.
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3. The right side; the side opposite to the left.
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Led her to the Souldan's right. --Spenser.
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4. In some legislative bodies of Europe (as in France), those
members collectively who are conservatives or monarchists.
See {Center}, 5.
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5. The outward or most finished surface, as of a piece of
cloth, a carpet, etc.
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{At all right}, at all points; in all respects. [Obs.]
--Chaucer.
{Bill of rights}, a list of rights; a paper containing a
declaration of rights, or the declaration itself. See
under {Bill}.
{By right}, {By rights}, or {By good rights}, rightly;
properly; correctly.
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He should himself use it by right. --Chaucer.
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I should have been a woman by right. --Shak.
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{Divine right}, or
{Divine right of kings}, a name given to the patriarchal
theory of government, especially to the doctrine that no
misconduct and no dispossession can forfeit the right of a
monarch or his heirs to the throne, and to the obedience
of the people.
{To rights}.
(a) In a direct line; straight. [R.] --Woodward.
(b) At once; directly. [Obs. or Colloq.] --Swift.
{To set to rights}, {To put to rights}, to put in good order;
to adjust; to regulate, as what is out of order.
{Writ of right} (Law), a writ which lay to recover lands in
fee simple, unjustly withheld from the true owner.
--Blackstone.
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from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
WRIT OF RIGHT, practice. The remedy appropriate to the case where a party
claims the specific recovery of corporeal hereditaments in fee simple;
founding his title on the right of property, or mere right, arising either
from his own seisin, or the seisin of his ancestor or predecessor. F. N. B.
1 B 3 Bl. Com. 391.
2. At common law, a writ of right lies only against the tenant of the
freehold demanded. 8 Cranch, 239.
3. This writ brings into controversy only the rights of the parties in
the suit, and a defence that a third person has better title will not avail.
Id.; 7 Wheat. 27; 3 Pet. 133. See 2 Wheat. 306; 4 Bing. N. S. 711; 3 Bing.
N. S. 434; 4 Scott, R. 209; 6 Scott, R. 435; Id. 738; 1 Bing. N. S. 597; 5
Bing. N. S. 161; 6 Ad. & Ell. 103; 1 H. Bl. 1; 5 Taunt. R. 326; 1 Marsh. R.
68; 2 Bos. & P. 570; 1 N. R. 64; 4 Taunt. R. 572; 3 Bing. R. 167; 2 W. Bl.
Rep. 1261; 1 B. & B. 17; 2 Car. & P. 187; Id. 271 Holt, R. 657; 8 Cranch,
229; 3 Fairf. 312; 7 Wend. 250; 3 Bibb, 57; 3 Rand. 568 2 J. J. Marsh. 104;
2 A. K. Marsh. 396; 1 Dana, 410; 2 Leigh, R. 1 4 Mass. 64; 17 Mass. 74.