do the right thing
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Act with integrity and morality, even if difficult
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
hành động với liêm chính và đạo đức, ngay cả khi khó khăn
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: perform the correct action
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
If the editor decides to invert the press release, you've actually done the right thing in putting your good point first.
Alejandro gets pissed off and shouts if you don't do the right thing straight away.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
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 “do the right thing” mean?
Act with integrity and morality, even if difficult Literally: perform the correct action
Is “do the right thing” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.