dead to rights
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Caught or proven guilty with conclusive evidence
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Bị bắt hoặc chứng minh có tội với bằng chứng kết luận
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: physically holding someone who has died, implying complete control
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The police had the burglar dead to rights with the security footage
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “dead to rights” mean?
Caught or proven guilty with conclusive evidence Literally: physically holding someone who has died, implying complete control
Is “dead to rights” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.