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

Bondi’s insults got the most press, because she would respond to any hard question by bringing up some irrelevant personal attack on whatever Democrat had her dead to rights.

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“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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