dead to rights

1. In the act of committing an error or crime, red-handed. For example, They caught the burglars dead to rights with the Oriental rugs. This phrase uses to rights in the sense of “at once.” [Slang; mid-1800s]

Example Sentences

“Evil Unbound” grossed more than $270 million in a week, while another big-budget feature film, “Dead to Rights,” about Japan’s 1937 massacre of Chinese citizens in the eastern city of Nanjing, has grossed more than $420 million since its release in late July.

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Dead To Rights, or Nanjing Photo Studio, is a star-studded tale about a group of civilians who hide from Japanese troops in a photo studio.

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For example, former special counsel Robert Mueller had Trump dead to rights on obstruction of justice, but declined to seek an indictment based on a years-old opinion by the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel that recommends against indicting a sitting president.

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I don't think Donald Trump is dead to rights.

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By the sixth episode Jarecki has Durst dead to rights to such a degree that Durst excuses himself to the bathroom and, forgetting his mic is still hot, murmurs, “There it is. You’re caught.”

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