Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also rightly, right smart) totally, completely, also used as adj.

c.1367–86		Langland Piers Plowman (1550) I Biii line 185: That Faythe is right nothing worth And as deade as a dore-nayl. [Ibid.] 187: ‘What, ravestow?’ quod Rightwisenesse; ‘or thow art right dronke.’.
c.1468		‘Trial of Josph and Mary’ Coventry Mysteries (1841) 139: The olde charle had ryght gret corage.
c.1475		Lydgate ‘Complaint of the Black Knight’ Minor Poems II (1934) line 675: Go, litel quayre, go vn-to my lyves quene [...] And be ryght glad for she shal the sene.
c.1495		Skelton Dyvers Balettys and Dyties Solacyous ii line 27: Thys grevyth your husband, that right jentyll knyght.
1515–16		Skelton Magnyfycence line 1375: It grieveth me ryght sore To see you thus ruled.
1540		D. Lyndsay Satyre of Thrie Estaits (1604) 26: Thow can richt weil crak and clatter.
1576		U. Fulwell Art of Flattery 8th dialogue 38: Sir I perceive right well that you haue bene accustomed with the flattering entertainment of Tapsters.
c.1590		Jeronimo (1605) Aiii: spai: How stand ye Lords to this election. omnes: Right pleasing our dread Soueraigne.
1611		Shakespeare Tempest III iii: I am right glad that he’s so out of hope.
1659		Greene & Lodge Lady Alimony II v: She’s right tinder: no sooner touch then take.
c.1660		‘Fryar & Boye’ in Furnivall & Hales Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript of Loose and Humorous Songs (1868) 12: To such poore victualls as I haue, / right welcome shall you be.
1756		W. Toldervy Hist. of the Two Orphans I 131: To business he shall go, and that right soon.
1768		A. Ross Helenore in Wattie Scot. Works (1938) 84: Right cheerfully the road they did tak in.
1788		‘The Jolly Beggar-Man’ Songs (pub. Newry) 4: And if I get money, right cheerfully I do spend.
1812		J. Bell Jr. (ed.) Rhymes of Northern Bards 6: Each pay-day nearly, / He takes his quairt right dearly.
c.1815		J.K. Paulding Bucktails (1847) V ii: He’s right good-natur’d.
1828		‘Humours of Glasgow Fair’ [broadsheet ballad] Now Gibbie was wanting a toothfu: / Says he ‘I’m right tir’d of the fun; / I say, lads d’ye think we’d be the waur o’ a mouthfu / Of guid nappie Yill and Bun’.
1832		J.K. Paulding Westward Ho! I 179: I’ll be shot if there wasn’t a little varmint of a town built right smack on the spot that used to be one of the best deer stations in the whole country.
1842		Littell ‘Yankee Doodle!’ Clay Minstrel (1844) 169: Old Yankee Doodle’s noble tune [...] be it sung again ‘right’ soon.
1854		Thackeray Newcomes I 239: I am right glad to see thee, boy!
1865		M.L. Byrn Adventures of Fudge Fumble 173: I thought she still might agree to make a husband of me, if she tried right hard, but she didn’t.
1877		‘Dicky Short’s History’ Laughing Songster 57: Nelly right flat like his wife did refuse to be.
1884		J. Harrison ‘Negro English’ in Anglia VII 262: Right smart = a good deal.
1889		Music Hall & Theatre Rev 2 Mar. 37/2: We met a few of the boys there [...] and spent a right merry half-hour.
1894		‘Mark Twain’ Pudd’nhead Wilson 125: I’m right down sorry I did it now.
1916		H.L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap 17: He was beginning to look right puzzled indeed.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 243: I feel right sorry for them.
1936		R. Chandler ‘Goldfish’ in Red Wind (1946) 180: Hell, we don’t know him right well.
1943		‘Henry Green’ Caught (2001) 150: Right glad I am they brought it off at last.
1949		L. Hughes Tambourines to Glory II ii: It takes a right smart time to get down from Mount Vernon.
1959		A. Anderson ‘The Checker Board’ Lover Man 6: You better get that child some shoes right soon.
1970		J. Conaway Big Easy 28: I take that as a rite kindly offer the dude is making.
1986		S. King It (1987) 460: It got so the place was getting crowded right smart every weekend.
1991		T. Delaney Where We Sported and Played 82: Sugar, now I’m rightly stuck.
2005		(ref. to 1950s) A. Bennett Untold Stories (2006) 25: If Dad had his hair cut too short he was thought to look ‘right common’.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘I was right pissed off’.

2. (also rite) used for emphasizing how good or bad someone or something is, e.g. a right bastard, a right good ’un.

c.1510		Colyn Blowbols Testament line 316: Every man have plente and sufficiance, Of mete and drynk right large abundaunce.
1515–16		Skelton Magnyfycence line 822: Ye, and do ryght good servyce he can.
1519		J. Rastell The Four Elements line 637: Then we wyll have lytell Nell, [...] And two or thre proper wenchis mo, Ryght feyr and smotter of face.
1533		J. Heywood Play of Weather in Farmer Dramatic Writings (1905) 108: And very beggars save only our toll, / Which is right small and yet many grudges / For grist of a bushel to give a quart bowl.
1550		Udall Ralph Roister Doister III iii: He was your right good master, while he was in heal.
1567		R. Edwards Damon and Pithias (1571) Fii: A mery Harecoppe tis and a pleasant companion, A right courtier.
1584		Three Ladies of London II: No lesse then a Farmer, a right honest man.
1603		Dekker Wonderfull Yeare 70: Thou shewst thy selfe to be a right cobler, and no sowter, that canst thus cleanly clowt vp the seam-rent sides of thy affection.
c.1620		Fletcher Women Pleased I i: ’Tis true she is a right good Princes, and a just one.
1629		R. Brome Northern Lasse IV ii: I have in all found you a right worthie Gentleman.
1655		Gossips Braule 5: Hee’s a right Gentleman borne Ile warrant him.
1707		Humours of a Coffee-House 30 July 27: Chear up thy Soul with Noble Claret, / Or right good Nantz.
1724		A. Ramsay Tea-table Misc. (1733) I 97: The malt-man is right cunning.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 260: A fine tall wench as ever stood / On tip-toe, and was right good blood.
1782		G. Parker Humorous Sketches 46: A chearing bottle and some right good fare.
1792		C. Dibdin ‘Recital of the Tombs’ Buck’s Delight 91: Here lies William of Valence, a right good Earl of Pembroke.
1803		J. Davis Travels in USA 384: If her children had not been right black and right ugly like myself, I should have suspected her vartue long before.
1810		‘The Tight Little Navy’ Tegg’s Prime Song Book 6: Oh! its a snug little navy, / A right little, tight little navy.
1821		‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 32: A right good fellow as ever took the froth of a pot.
1833		D. Crockett Sketches and Eccentricities 144: He was a right smart koon.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 18: I heard a right good thing from him about that the other day.
1852		F.E. Smedley Lewis Arundel 27: Richard Frere’s a right good fellow.
1862		letter in Silber & Sievens Yankee Correspondence (1996) 95: Tom was a ‘right smart boy’.
1871		E. Eggleston Hoosier School-Master (1892) 37: But I ’low it takes a right smart man to be school-master in Flat Crick in the winter.
1880		G.R. Sims Three Brass Balls 40: The fresh air was Jack’s champagne, and a right good brand it is.
1887		in Overland Monthly (CA) July 52: His having made a ‘right smart spec’ by retailing crab-apple blossoms.
1895		E. Pugh Street in Suburbia 43: A right-darn good ’un.
1901		B. Pain De Omnibus 134: Ah, she were a wrong un – a reg’lar right-darn wrong un!
1909		W.M. Raine Brand Blotters (1912) 180: You’re getting up a right smart interest in my family, all of a sudden.
1917		Boy’s Own Paper XL 1 29: That’s a right smart lot o’ money, back in the States, but it don’t count very high in Alsaska.
1922		H.L. Wilson Merton of the Movies 45: We got to put a right smart distance between us and that pesky sheriff’s posse.
1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 57: Right mingy lot of bastards.
c.1940–5		‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Best of Myles (1968) 43: Yes, the wife is a Cork girl, a right flighty article.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 2: Rahnd Fowlers End you got to talk like one o’ the right yobbos.
1965		E. Bond Saved Scene i: ’E’s a right ol’ twit, ain’ ’e!
1970		J. Conaway Big Easy 28: I take that as a rite kindly offer the dude is making.
1975		Sun. Times mag. 12 Oct. 30: They think you’re a right pudden if you do something for nowt.
1983		A. Payne ‘Get Daley!’ Minder [TV script] 65: He’s a right prat, Wendy, for crying out loud. He’s thick, he’s lazy, he costs us money and he makes me want to puke.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 146: I never could right sit there watch him go off to Mecca.
2005		H. Mantel Beyond Black 204: Oh, he were a right laugh!

3. (US Und.) of a criminal, under protection from corrupt authorities.

1937

(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 29: Another hook [...] finally got control of several spots to grift right (under complete protection).

4. (US) properly; thus get (one) right, to capture ‘dead to rights’.

1910		B. Fisher Mutt & Jeff 22 Nov. [synd. strip] Say Mutt, I’m, in right! I met a swell dame [and] she’s dead stuck on me.
1917		R. Lardner Gullible’s Travels 90: Our trip, she says, was an investment; it was goin’ to get us in right with people worth w’ile.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 197: The coppers had me ‘right’. The job in — was ‘a square rap’ (The police had the goods on me).
1931		R. Whitfield ‘About Kid Deth’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2007) 269: I’ve been on your tail a long time. And I’ve got you right.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 79/2: Get one right. 1. To arrest in the act of committing a crime or with incontrovertible proof of guilt. 2. (P) To seize one in a rule violation or with proof of guilt. 3. To trap one in an easily proved violation of underworld code or convention.
1965		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 86: Well, well, Limpty Lefty McCree, we got you right at last.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 61/1: I’ll see you right typically matey promise to look after someone in trouble or need.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].