have a right to

Idioms

Have a just or legal claim on something or on some action, as in The accused has a right to legal counsel. The related have the right to is often used with infinitives, as in You have the right to remain silent. [Late 1300s] The antonym, dating from the mid-1600s, is have no right to, as in He has no right to push you aside. Also see in the right.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"You have a right to be offended but also there needs to be a level of understanding deeper than the surface level of Tourette's as an involuntary disability."

From BBC

“It’s on the basis of the claim that they did that all kinds of things happen. People are displaced. There’s a money flow. I mean, it’s a big question. A lot hangs on this. It’s not some theoretical thing. It’s like, No, no, we have a right to be here because my ancestors were here. OK, how do we know they were here?”

From Slate

“Don’t we have a right to know? If he’s running from something, it will catch up to him. You can’t hide from a rumpel.”

From Literature

It is an accomplishment of modern thinking to get to the point where we said, “You can’t go around conquering territory, and to conquer a territory doesn’t mean you have a right to the territory.”

From Salon

Mike Rueda, a corporate sports attorney at Withers, told MarketWatch that it’s “good timing. Players have a right to demand more. They have a lot of leverage based on what has gone on over the last several years.”

From MarketWatch

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023