Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US Und.) defiance of authority.

1953

T. Runyon In For Life 246: I judged men by the ‘rightness’ of their thinking, by the degree of their defiance of authority.

a corrupt police officer.

1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 335/1: right cop, n. A police officer who is in on the graft; one who will ‘do business.’.
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl. 62: right cop, right D.A.. One who will accept bribes.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 193: right cop A policeman who will accept a bribe.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 178/1: Right copper. A policeman who will accept bribes or offer limited cooperation to the underworld; a policeman who shuns use of third degree methods and is scrupulously fair in his relations with criminals.

(US) a doctor who is willing to write prescriptions for narcotic drugs, patch up wounded villains and perform other illegal services.

1929		Hostetter & Beesley It’s a Racket! 93: To him [i.e. the racketeer], a physician or surgeon is only a ‘croaker’, a ‘right croaker’ if he is the sort who will treat a fugitive criminal’s wounds or injuries without notifying the police.
1938		D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 108/1: right-croaker. A physician or dentist who will sell drugs to an addict; one who will sail, or turn, or write scrip.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 178/1: Right croaker. A physician who does business with the underworld, treating wounds without reporting to police.
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 314: right croaker. A doctor who sells narcotics illegally.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

(US Und.) working confidence tricks after bribing the police and thus without fear of arrest.

1937

(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 117: A special form of fixing is known as ‘right grift.’ This refers to a situation where absolute immunity is guaranteed in so far as the police detailed to a particular spot are concerned.

1. (US, usu. Und.) a trustworthy person, esp. in criminal terms.

1897		St Paul Globe (MN) 15 July 10/1: Randall claimed that it was occasionally necessary for him to do a ‘job’ [...] to convince his associates that he’s a ‘right guy’.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 61: What with treating the gang and being a right guy generally.
1913		Van Loan ‘Won Off the Diamond’ in Lucky Seventh (2004) 279: You’ve done a right guy an injustice.
1928		C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 117: I never met or heard of anyone yet who ever admitted that they were wrong [...] They all insist that they are right guys and square crooks.
1933		‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 124: We branched out into a stronger organization and were known as ‘right guys’.
1945		B. Frame Crown Jewels are Missing 43: You won’t find anything wrong with him. He’s a right guy.
1956		‘Toney Betts’ Across the Board 104: Leo the Bum stood up in the Hinds trial and is fundamentally a right guy.
1968		K. Brasselle Cannibals 172: He’s a right guy.
1978		(ref. to 1917–18) H. Berry Make the Kaiser Dance 101: In World War I parlance, a man who was on the square was the real goods—in other words, a right guy.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 89: I’m here for information, and I hear you’re a right guy.
1991		O.D. Brooks Legs 8: He was a right guy.

2. (US prison) a popular prisoner, respected by his peers.

1953		F. Paley Rumble on the Docks (1955) 60: Yuh gotta listen to the right guys who were sent up [...] Your brothers are right guys!
1969		C.B. Hopper Sex in Prison 116: The inmate code is followed by ‘right guys’ and not by all prisoners. ‘Right guys’ are the inmates who stick together, and a man has to earn his way into the fold.
1983		N. Heard House of Slammers 38: Most of his trouble seems to stem from trying to prove to others that he’s a right guy.

1. a safe criminal haunt or establishment.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 178/1: Right joint. Any establishment or prison operated in conformity with the established ethics of the underworld, as a saloon from which police and stool pigeons are excluded.

2. a prison, esp. one considered to treat prisoners fairly.

1960, 1975

Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

(Aus.) the honest truth, true facts.

1924		G.H. Lawson Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 RIGHT OIL — The truth; to be informed.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 238/1: right oil (straight oil) – the true information.
1963		(con. 1944) L. Glassop Rats in New Guinea 42: I’ll give you the right oil, Mick, but you’ll have to keep it to yourself.

1. (also right ’un) something that is an exceptional example of its type, often humorous or bizarre.

1766		Midnight Spy (c.1929) 62: [of a blow] If you nag, I’ll tip you such a right one, that I’ll make you believe the devil’s come for you before your time.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 51: Mr. Harrison, a right one and never at fault.
1859		Empire (Sydney) 27 July 5/5: A very clever man / We see has reached our isle / ‘’Tis a right ’un and a tight ’un,’ / said Derby with a smile.
1890		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 5 July 7/2: The show was a right ’un, of course, you may stake your last daisy roots.
1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 3 Oct. 1/4: [of a horse] Titan, the right ’un, was head of the string.
1934		P. Allingham Cheapjack 39: They look all right-’uns to me.
1937		J. Curtis There Ain’t No Justice 21: Once he had been a right’un and had boxed with Johnny Basham.
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act I: smith: Read us one out, Bammo. / bamforth: Here’s a right one. Get this.
2001		A. Sillitoe Birthday 49: She’s a right one, she is. She’d skin your prick like a banana.

2. an admirable person (or animal).

[1619		Fletcher Monsieur Thomas (1639) I i: This last wench was a faire one: A dainty wench, a right one].
1842		Bell’s Penny Dispatch 3 Apr. 3/1: [T]he celebrated Dr. Fakes N— [...] who has deservedly acquired the name of a right ’un.
1848		Paul Pry 18 Dec. n.p.: F—W— [...] is a stunning good sort, but at times follows the example of his horses, by kicking over the traces. But being a right’un, we shall allow him to wet his eye, or both.
1888		‘’Arry on Competitive Examination’ in Punch 1 Dec. 253/2: We wants it made easy for right ’uns, and nice for the nobs — and wot ’arm?
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 223: [of a horse] After you’d got your money down on the right one [...] the flash ’ud come in on one of the other skates.
1928		R.J. Tasker Grimhaven 164: She was a square one and a right one.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 41: She was a proper bramah, a smasher, a right one.

3. (Ulster) an unpredictable person.

1981		A. Weller Day of the Dog 38: Got a right one here, he thinks.
1993		M. Dibdin Dying of the Light 78: We’ve got a right one here, thought Jarvis.
1997		Share Slanguage.

a corrupt prison warder.

1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 4: This [...] can only be effected by the connivance of a ‘screw,’ or warder – who, when accessible to a bribe, is termed a ‘right screw’.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 178/2: Right screw. (P) A prison guard who handles smuggled letters, contraband, etc., often for bribes, sometimes gratis.

see separate entry.

see separate entry.

(US Und.) any town or small city where the authorities – police, local politicians – have been bribed into allowing criminal activity to flourish.

1914		Wash. Post 11 Nov. Misc. 3/5: In the heyday of the criminal tribes who roamed this country [...] Toledo was known as a ‘right town’ and a good place to hide out.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 22: These [small] cities, known as ‘right towns’, are indelibly identified with the big store.

a corrupt prison warder.

1891

J. Bent Criminal Life 272: Will you go and tell Dutch Doll to come up to try and get me right twirl (good warder).

1. to get drunk or intoxicated by drugs.

1980

Eble Campus Sl. Fall 3: get one’s head right – get high: ‘I guess I’ll get my head right this weekend’.

2. see SE phrs. below.

1. (US black) to become drunk or intoxicated by drugs; the image of the latter is to maintain an addiction and avoid pain.

1938		‘Sl. among Nebraska Negroes’ in AS XIII:4 Dec. 317/1: Among adjectives [...] High, ready, sent, right, lushed refer to various stages of intoxication.
1963		C. Cooper Jr ‘Yet Princes Follow’ in Black! (1996) 236: Roy [...] made Ely a drink. ‘Take this,’ he said [...] ‘Get right with the world, man.’.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 240: Fran [...] runs a game on Buster to get right.
2009		W.D. Myers Dope Sick 40: I figure him to be a dude using big-time and needing to get right.
2020		Woods & Soderburg I Got a Monster 63: [T]he informant, a heroin user, told Jenkins he had to ‘get right,’ and asked to be driven somewhere [...] he could shoot up.

2. (US und.) to suborn.

1913

Curran Report 14: Barney Reed, who boasts of his ability ‘to make connection and get right’ every Inspector of Police as soon as he is transferred to the District wherein they operate.

3. see SE phrs. below.

(US) to ‘have someone cold’, ‘dead to rights’.

1930		M. Fiaschetti You Gotta Be Rough 117: ‘I’ll admit you’ve got me right,’ he said. ‘There’s no use trying to duck. This stuff is stolen’.
1930		M. Fiaschetti You Gotta Be Rough 37: He nearly fainted when I put him under arrest. I took him to his house and there found a pistol and a stock of counterfeit money. I had him right, and he came through right there on the spot.

1. (US Und.) to buy protection from an official.

1940

D. Maurer Big Con 298: To have (someone) right. To buy protection from an official [...] Also used of cities, banks; etc.

2. see get (someone) right

(US black) to feel good, esp. as a result of drug use.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 246: make (one) right Feel good (especially from getting high).

(UK Und.) to bribe, to corrupt.

1851

Liverpool Mercury 14 Jan. 38/2: There are, in Liverpool [...] and other seaports, police ‘made right’.

1. in cards, the knave of trumps; also fig. use.

a.1871		B. Harte Heathen Chinee At last he put down a right bower, / Which the same Nye had dealt unto me.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Sept. 13/2: In a betting case tried in the Tamworth (N.S.W.) Court, the Bench of magistrates, one and all, professed that they did not know the meaning of a ‘right bower,’ or ‘The Devil’s Prayer Book.’ Sweet innocents; to see the exceedingly loose leg the elderly elders of that elderly town flourish when down in Sydney on ‘urgent business,’ is enough to —.
1894		A.A. MacInnes Straight as a Line 264: Good old Jack! Knew he was the Right Bower of something! [...] but did not know it was the trumps!
1929		J.F. Dobie A Vaquero of the Brush Country 173: His ‘right bower,’ Charlie Bawdre, dying from a bullet wound, staggered into the hut.
1960		N. Hilliard Maori Girl 257: ‘Your deal, Alec.’ ‘Here’s just the boy to turn up a right bower!’.

2. in fig. use: a preferred suitor.

1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Nov. 25/3: She has to attend to too many to be really dangerous, unless one can win his way to the expensive and irksome position of ‘right bower.’.
1908		E.S. Sorenson Quinton’s Rouseabout and other Stories 231: In the meantime the foreigner had become infatuated with the fresh beauty of Kate Leeson, and for months he had looked upon himself as the ‘right bower.’.

3. (US) a deputy or second in command.

1902		Goodwin’s Wkly (Salt Lake City, UT) 9 Aug. 14/1: Freddy Robsinson [...] Richett’s right bower, will see the ladies are properly entertained.
1913		Day Book (Chicago) 21 Mar. 1/1: Henry C. Schwab, president of Rothschild & Company, and his right bower [...] assistant superintendant of the store.
1929		L. Thomas Woodfill of the Regulars 38: Besides being the captain’s right bower, he was one of the most popular fellows.
1979		(con. late 19C) J.T. Edson Gentle Giant 166: An expert cowhand, Mark was known as Dusty’s right bower.

see charlie n.⁴

1. to come to one’s senses.

2001

(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 79: You got history with him, how about getting his head right about this.

2. see sl. phrs. above.

1. (US) to pull oneself together; to re-establish one’s reputation.

1885		Dly Bulletin (Honolulu, HI) 14 Nov. 4/1: One man named Sifas [...] got angry and smashed a canoe. He came to us [...] to know how he should get right again.
1896		H. Blossom Checkers 48: You take a paralyzed oath [...] that if you ever get right again you’ll ‘salt your stuff’ and be a ‘tight-wad.’.
1914		Mrs Grundy (Tracy City, TN) 18 Feb. 1/4: He is wrong with the people, he should get right with himself.
1968		‘Hy Lit’ Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 18: get right – Tighten your game.

2. (US campus) to get ready.

1981

Eble Campus Sl. Fall 4: get right – get ready: I’m getting right for my date tonight.

3. see sl. phrs. above.

all in order, completed.

1822

Tom and Jerry; A Musical Extravaganza I iv: You’re right and fly, now Jerry. [Ibid.] 55: Right and fly, complete.

see under bank n.¹

(US campus) a parody of the 1960s slogan right on! excl.

1975

G. Underwood ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 65: You didn’t study for the test? Right arm!