'By rights' definitions:

Definition of 'by rights'

From: WordNet
adverb
With reason or justice [syn: by rights, properly]

Definition of 'By rights'

From: GCIDE
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • Seldom your opinions err; Your eyes are always in the right. --Prior. [1913 Webster] (c) A just judgment or action; that which is true or proper; justice; uprightness; integrity. [1913 Webster]
  • Long love to her has borne the faithful knight, And well deserved, had fortune done him right. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. That to which one has a just claim. Specifically: (a) That which one has a natural claim to exact. [1913 Webster]
  • There are no rights whatever, without corresponding duties. --Coleridge. [1913 Webster] (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. [1913 Webster]
  • Born free, he sought his right. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
  • Hast thou not right to all created things? --Milton. [1913 Webster]
  • Men have no right to what is not reasonable. --Burke. [1913 Webster] (d) Privilege or immunity granted by authority. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. The right side; the side opposite to the left. [1913 Webster]
  • Led her to the Souldan's right. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. In some legislative bodies of Europe (as in France), those members collectively who are conservatives or monarchists. See Center, 5. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. The outward or most finished surface, as of a piece of cloth, a carpet, etc. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • He should himself use it by right. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
  • I should have been a woman by right. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 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. [1913 Webster]

Words containing 'By rights'