Right
King James Dictionary [1]
Right a. rite. L. rectus, from the root of rego, properly to strain or stretch, whence straight.
Properly strained stretched to straightness hence,
1. Straight. A right line in geometry is the shortest line that can be drawn or imagined between two points. A right line may be horizontal, perpendicular, or inclined to the plane of the horizon. 2. In morals and religion, just equitable accordant to the standard of truth and justice or the will of God. That alone is right in the sight of God, which is consonant to his will or law this being the only perfect standard of truth and justice. In social and political affairs, that is right which is consonant to the laws and customs of a country, provided these laws and customs are not repugnant to the laws of God. A man's intentions may be right, though his actions may be wrong in consequence of a defect in judgment. 3. Fit suitable proper becoming. In things indifferent, or which are regulated by no positive law, that is right which is best suited to the character, occasion or purpose, or which is fitted to produce some good effect. It is right for a rich man to dress himself and his family in expensive clothing, which it would not be right for a poor man to purchase. It is right for every man to choose his own time for eating or exercise.
Right is a relative term what may be right for one end, may be wrong for another.
4. Lawful as the right heir of an estate. 5. True not erroneous or wrong according to fact.
If there be no prospect beyond the grave, the inference is certainly right, "let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."
6. Correct passing a true judgment not mistaken or wrong.
You are right, justice, and you weigh this well.
7. Not left most convenient or dextrous as the right hand, which is generally most strong or most convenient in use. 8. Most favorable or convenient.
The lady has been disappointed on the right side.
9. Properly placed, disposed or adjusted orderly well regulated. 10. Well performed, as an art or act. 11. Most direct as the right way from London to Oxford. 12. Being on the same side as the right hand as the right side. 13. Being on the right hand of a person whose face is towards the mouth of a river as the right bank of the Hudson.
RIGHT, adv.
1. In a right or straight line directly.
Let thine eyes look right on. Proverbs 4 .
2. According to the law or will of God, or to the standard of truth and justice as, to judge right. 3. According to any rule of art.
You with strict discipline instructed right.
4. According to fact or truth as, to tell a story right. 5. In a great degree very as right humble right noble right valiant. Obsolescent or inelegant. 6. It is prefixed to titles as in right honorable right reverend.
RIGHT, is used elliptically for it is right, what you say is right, it is true, &c.
Right, cries his lordship.
On the right, on the side with the right hand.
RIGHT, n.
1. Conformity to the will of God, or to his law, the perfect standard of truth and justice. In the literal sense, right is a straight line of conduct, and wrong a crooked one. Right therefore is rectitude or straightness, and perfect rectitude is found only in an infinite Being and his will. 2. Conformity to human laws, or to other human standard of truth, propriety or justice. When laws are definite, right and wrong are easily ascertained and understood. In arts, there are some principles and rules which determine what is right. In many things indifferent, or left without positive law, we are to judge what is right by fitness or propriety, by custom, civility or other circumstances. 3. Justice that which is due or proper as, to do right to every man.
Long love to her has borne the faithful knight, and well deserv'd had fortune done him right.
4. Freedom from error conformity with truth or fact.
Seldom your opinions err, your eyes are always in the right.
5. Just claim legal title ownership the legal power of exclusive possession and enjoyment. In hereditary monarchies, a right to the throne vests in the heir on the decease of the king. A deed vests the right of possession in the purchaser of land. Right and possession are very different things. We often have occasion to demand and sue for rights not in possession. 6. Just claim by courtesy, customs, or the principles of civility and decorum. Every man has a right to treatment. The magistrate has a right to respect. 7. Just claim by sovereignty prerogative. God, as the author of all things, has a right to govern and dispose of them at his pleasure. 8. That which justly belongs to one.
Born free, he sought his right.
9. Property interest.
A subject in his prince may claim a right.
10. Just claim immunity privilege. All men have a right to the secure enjoyment of life, personal safety, liberty and property. We deem the right of trial by jury invaluable, particularly in the case of crimes. Rights are natural, political, religious, personal, and public. 11. Authority legal power. We have no right to disturb others in the enjoyment of their religious opinions. 12. In the United States, a tract of land or a share or proportion of property, as in a mine or manufactory. 13. The side opposite to the left as on the right. Look to the right. 1. To rights, in a direct line straight. Unusual. 2. Directly soon.
To set to rights,
To put to rights, to put into good order to adjust to regulate what is out of order.
Bill of rights, a list of rights a paper containing a declaration of rights, or the declaration itself.
Writ of right, a writ which lies to recover lands in fee simple, unjustly withheld from the true owner.
RIGHT,
1. To do justice to to relieve from wrong as, to right an injured person. 2. In seamen's language, to right a ship, is to restore her to an upright position from a careen.
To right the helm, to place it in the middle of the ship.
RIGHT, To rise with the masts erect, as a ship.
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): ( a.) The straight course; adherence to duty; obedience to lawful authority, divine or human; freedom from guilt, - the opposite of moral wrong.
(2): ( a.) That which one has a natural claim to exact.
(3): ( a.) That to which one has a just claim.
(4): ( a.) Of or pertaining to that side of the body in man on which the muscular action is usually stronger than on the other side; - opposed to left when used in reference to a part of the body; as, the right side, hand, arm. Also applied to the corresponding side of the lower animals.
(5): ( a.) A just judgment or action; that which is true or proper; justice; uprightness; integrity.
(6): ( a.) 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.
(7): ( adv.) In a great degree; very; wholly; unqualifiedly; extremely; highly; as, right humble; right noble; right valiant.
(8): ( a.) 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.
(9): ( v. i.) Hence, to regain an upright position, as a ship or boat, after careening.
(10): ( v. i.) To recover the proper or natural condition or position; to become upright.
(11): ( a.) 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.
(12): ( adv.) According to fact or truth; actually; truly; really; correctly; exactly; as, to tell a story right.
(13): ( a.) Well placed, disposed, or adjusted; orderly; well regulated; correctly done.
(14): ( a.) The outward or most finished surface, as of a piece of cloth, a carpet, etc.
(15): ( a.) In some legislative bodies of Europe (as in France), those members collectively who are conservatives or monarchists. See Center, 5.
(16): ( a.) The right side; the side opposite to the left.
(17): ( a.) A true statement; freedom from error of falsehood; adherence to truth or fact.
(18): ( a.) Privilege or immunity granted by authority.
(19): ( a.) Designed to be placed or worn outward; as, the right side of a piece of cloth.
(20): ( adv.) In a right manner.
(21): ( adv.) In a right or straight line; directly; hence; straightway; immediately; next; as, he stood right before me; it went right to the mark; he came right out; he followed right after the guide.
(22): ( adv.) Exactly; just.
(23): ( adv.) According to the law or will of God; conforming to the standard of truth and justice; righteously; as, to live right; to judge right.
(24): ( adv.) According to any rule of art; correctly.
(25): ( a.) 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.
(26): ( a.) That which is right or correct.
(27): ( a.) Conformed to the constitution of man and the will of God, or to justice and equity; not deviating from the true and just; according with truth and duty; just; true.
(28): ( a.) Straight; direct; not crooked; as, a right line.
(29): ( a.) Upright; erect from a base; having an upright axis; not oblique; as, right ascension; a right pyramid or cone.
(30): ( a.) Most favorable or convenient; fortunate.
(31): ( a.) Fit; suitable; proper; correct; becoming; as, the right man in the right place; the right way from London to Oxford.
(32): ( a.) Characterized by reality or genuineness; real; actual; not spurious.
(33): ( a.) According with truth; passing a true judgment; conforming to fact or intent; not mistaken or wrong; not erroneous; correct; as, this is the right faith.
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament [3]
Three terms translated ‘right’ in the English Versionscall for notice.
1 . εὐθύς (‘straight’) expresses pictorially the simplest notion, which also underlies the Eng. term ‘right,’ being especially used in connexion with ‘way’ or ‘path’ ( Acts 13:10, 2 Peter 2:15). A transitional use, carrying an ethical sense, occurs in Acts 8:21 : ‘thy heart is not right’ (εὐθεῖα).
2 . δίκαιος comes into use when the notion of ‘right’ emerges on the ethical plane. Whatever accords with established custom (δίκη), with a recognized norm, is δίκαιον. That norm is found in the common ethical judgment of men; but the NT accentuates the norm as fixed by God ( Acts 4:19). And ultimately the only true δίκαιον ‘in the sight of men,’ is τὸ δίκαιον, ‘in the sight of God.’ That is the element of truth in ‘vox populi vox Dei.’ In every conceivable position and relation in which a man finds himself there is a course of action or a state of being for him which is as it should be: the one straight line of conduct amongst many more or less crooked. This is τὸ δίκαιον, what it is right for a man to do or be.
3 . ἐξουσία (‘a right’).-The idea of ‘a right’ easily grows out of the foregoing. It is the power or liberty to be, do, or possess what it is δίκαιον for a man in such and such circumstances to be, do, or possess (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:12, Hebrews 13:10, Revelation 22:14). (Regarding ἐξουσία as = ‘authority to rule,’ note that all such authority, to be worth anything, must rest on τὸ δίκαιον as its basis.)
Discussions as to the ‘rights’ of Christians as such soon emerged in the primitive Church. In the NT see especially St. Paul’s illuminating treatment in 1 Corinthians 8-10. The widest, boldest claim is made as regards these rights (πάντα ἔξεστιν), only to be qualified immediately by a severe reference to the bearing of their exercise on others. Higher ethical judgments, too, many under certain circumstances demand the waiving of undoubted rights. See e.g., how St. Paul deals with the question of marriage, and especially with that of ministerial stipends (1 Corinthians 9).
J. S. Clemens.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [4]
rı̄t ( ישׁר , yāshār , משׁפּט , mishpāṭ ; δικαιος , dı́kaios , εὐθύς , euthús ): Many Hebrew words are translated "right," with different shades of meaning. Of these the two noted are the most important: yāshār , with the sense of being straight, direct, as "right in the sight" of Yahweh ( Exodus 15:26; Deuteronomy 12:25 , etc.), in one's own eyes ( Judges 17:6 ), "right words" ( Job 6:25 the King James Version, yōsher ), "right paths" ( Proverbs 4:11 the King James Version); and mishpāṭ "judgment" "cause" etc., a forensic term, as "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" ( Genesis 18:25 ). In Job 34:17 , the Revised Version (British and American) has "justice" ( Job 34:6 , "right"), etc. The word cedheḳ , cedhāḳāh , ordinarily translated "righteousness," are in a few cases rendered "right" ( 2 Samuel 19:28; Nehemiah 2:20; Psalm 9:4; Psalm 17:1; Psalm 119:75; Ezekiel 18:5 , etc.). In the New Testament the chief word is dikaios , primarily "even," "equal" ( Matthew 20:4; Luke 12:57 , etc.); more generally the word is rendered "just" and "righteous." Euthus , used by Septuagint for yāshār ( 1 Samuel 12:23; Hosea 14:9 ), occurs a few times ( Acts 8:21; Acts 13:10; 2 Peter 2:15 ); so orthṓs , "straight," "upright" ( Luke 10:28 ).
"Right-hand" or "side" represents Hebrew yāmı̄n and kindred forms ( Genesis 48:13 , Genesis 48:14 , Genesis 48:17; Exodus 15:6 , etc.); the Greek, in this sense, is dexiós ( Matthew 6:3; Matthew 20:21 , etc.).
Revised Version, among other changes, has "right" for the King James Version "judgment" in Job 27:2; Job 34:5 , and for "right" in the King James Version substitutes "straight" in Ezra 8:21 , "skillful" in Ecclesiastes 4:4 , margin "successful," etc. In John 1:12 the Revised Version (British and American) reads, "the right to become children of God" for the King James Version "the power" ( exousı́a ); in Matthew 20:7 , Matthew 20:15 "right" is omitted, with the larger part of the verse. In 2 Timothy 2:15 "rightly dividing" ( orthotoméō ) is changed to "handling aright" with margin "holding a straight course in the word of truth. Or , rightly dividing the word of truth."
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [5]
as an adjective, describes the quality of an action as in conformity with moral law; as a substantive, the claim of a person upon others consequent upon the equal subjection of all to moral law. A right action (rectum) is an action agreeable to our duty, but a man's right (jus) has a very different meaning. What I have a right to do, it is the duty of all men not to hinder me from doing, and what I have a right to demand of any man, it is his duty to perform. A man's right is that which is vested in him by society, and because its laws may not always be conformable to the supreme rule of human action, viz. the Divine Law, the two words may often be properly opposed. We may say that a poor man has no right to relief, but it is right that he should have it. A rich man has a right to destroy the harvest of his fields, but to do so would not be right. See Fleming and Krauth, Dict. of Phil. Science, s.v.
