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in the right, be

in the right, be idiom

Have the support of fact, justice, or reason. For example, Nancy's parents were in the right when they took her teacher to task, or, as Shakespeare put it in Richard III (5:3): “He was in the right, and so indeed it is.” [Late 1400s] Also see the antonym in the wrong.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.