1.
[syn: divine right, divine right of kings]
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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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
divine right of kings
n 1: the doctrine that kings derive their right to rule directly
from God and are not accountable to their subjects;
rebellion is the worst of political crimes; "the doctrine
of the divine right of kings was enunciated by the Stuarts
in Britain in the 16th century" [syn: divine right,
divine right of kings]