a just claim or title, whether legal, prescriptive, or moral: You have a right to say what you please.
Sometimes rights. that which is due to anyone by just claim, legal guarantees, moral principles, etc.: women's rights; Freedom of speech is a right of all Americans.
adherence or obedience to moral and legal principles and authority.
that which is morally, legally, or ethically proper: to know right from wrong.
a moral, ethical, or legal principle considered as an underlying cause of truth, justice, morality, or ethics.
Sometimes rights. the interest or ownership a person, group, or business has in property: He has a 50-percent right in a silver mine. The author controls the screen rights for the book.
the property itself or its value.
Finance. - the privilege, usually preemptive, that accrues to the owners of the stock of a corporation to subscribe to additional shares of stock or securities convertible into stock at an advantageous price.
- Often rights.the privilege of subscribing to a specified amount of a stock or bond issue, or the document certifying this privilege.
that which is in accord with fact, reason, propriety, the correct way of thinking, etc.
the state or quality or an instance of being correct.
the side that is normally opposite to that where the heart is; the direction toward that side: to turn to the right.
a right-hand turn: Make a right at the top of the hill.
the portion toward the right, as of troops in battle formation: Our right crumbled.
(in a pair) the member that is shaped for, used by, or situated on the right side: Is this shoe a left or a right?
the right hand: Jab with your left and punch with your right.
the Right, - the complex of individuals or organized groups opposing change in a liberal direction and usually advocating maintenance of the established social, political, or economic order.
- the position held by these people: The Depression led to a movement away from the Right.Compare left1(defs 6a, b).
- right wing.
(usually initial capital letter) the part of a legislative assembly, especially in continental Europe, that is situated on the right side of the presiding officer and that is customarily assigned to members of the legislature who hold more conservative or reactionary views than the rest of the members.
the members of such an assembly who sit on the Right.
Boxing. a blow delivered by the right hand: a right to the jaw.
