by rights

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English

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /baɪ ˈɹaits/
Audio (AU) (file)
Rhymes: -aɪts

Prepositional phrase

Alternative form of by right
- 1863 October 24, Charles Dickens, “Titbull’s Alms-houses”, in The Uncommercial Traveller, new edition, London: Chapman & Hall, , published 1866, →OCLC, page 192, column 2:
  Well, whether the gentlemen really do deprive us of any little matters which ought to be ours by rights, I cannot say for certain; but the opinion of the old ones is they do.
- 1884, H[enry] Rider Haggard, chapter VII, in Dawn , volume I, London: Hurst and Blackett, , →OCLC, page 101:
  He told me not to tell anyone. I suppose I should not by rights have told you.
- 2007 September 27, Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood, spoken by Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), Los Angeles, Calif.: Paramount Vantage; Miramax Films, →OCLC:
  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 February 21, Eilidh Nisbet, “February 1951”, in Giddy Old School: The Diary of a Swot 1948 to 1951, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, 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.

Usage notes

Often used in the form by all rights.

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