bang to rights
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bang to rights¹
Where it comes from
From bang (“completely”) + to rights (“properly”). Originally US; attested from the start of the 20th century.
adverb more bang to rights · most bang to rights · banged to rights
-
Red-handed, (caught) in the act.
We had a man once who got caught with a bundle of railroad stocks.
They got him bang to rights and would have shoved him, only[…] when he swore he’d found them, they couldn’t prove he hadn’t.
Similar: dead to rights, bang to rights, blameworthily, compunctiously, guiltylike, guiltily, nocently, red-handedly
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bang (adverb), to rights. Once, after a spammer trolled Nanae, accusing antis of having no life, Mad Pierre sarcastically responded that the spammer was correct. ¶ “Damn, you’ve got us bang to rights. We have no lives. None. At all.”
bang to rights²
Where it comes from
From reinterpretation of bang (“completely”) as bang (“to handle noisily or violently”).
verb bangs to rights · banging to rights · banged to rights
- To have sufficient, indisputable evidence that a person's actions are generally perceived to be wrong; to catch red-handed. I am as intent on banging them all to rights as the next bleeding heart middle-class liberal, but take a look at the record so far.
Talk about this word "bang to rights." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/bang%20to%20rights. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. bang to rights. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/bang%20to%20rights "bang to rights." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/bang%20to%20rights.Cite this
@misc{bang_to_rights_2026,
title = {bang to rights},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/bang%20to%20rights},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
