2. That to which one has a just claim. Specifically: (a) That which one has a natural claim to exact.
There are no rights whatever, without corresponding duties.
Coleridge. (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.
Born free, he sought his right.
Dryden.
Hast thou not right to all created things?
Milton.
Men have no right to what is not reasonable.
Burke. (d) Privilege or immunity granted by authority.
3. The right side; the side opposite to the left.
Led her to the Souldan's right.
Spenser. 4. In some legislative bodies of Europe (as in France), those members collectively who are conservatives
or monarchists. See Center, 5.
5. The outward or most finished surface, as of a piece of cloth, a carpet, etc.
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.
He should himself use it by right.
Chaucer.
I should have been a woman by right.
Shak. —
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.
Right
(Right), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Righted; p. pr. & vb. n. Righting.] [AS. rihtan. See Right, a.]
1. To bring or restore to the proper or natural position; to set upright; to make right or straight (that which
has been wrong or crooked); to correct.
2. To do justice to; to relieve from wrong; to restore rights to; to assert or regain the rights of; as, to right
the oppressed; to right one's self; also, to vindicate.
So just is God, to right the innocent.
Shak.
All experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to
right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
Jefferson. To right a vessel (Naut.), to restore her to an upright position after careening. — To right the helm
(Naut.), to place it in line with the keel.
Right
(Right), v. i.
