rightly so

From rightly + so (“in a particular manner”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɹaɪtli ˈsəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɹaɪtli ˈsoʊ/
• Rhymes: -əʊ
• Hyphenation: right‧ly so

rightly so (not comparable)

1. In a manner that is factual or just; correctly, fairly, justly, truly; also, in a manner acceptable or excusable in the circumstances; understandably.

   Synonym: with good reason

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 7, page 198:

     His name is hight Pollente, rightly ſo / For that he is ſo puiſſant and ſtrong, / That vvith his povvre he all doth ouergo, / And makes them ſubiect to his mighty vvrong; […]

   • 1916, Johann Wolfgang Textor, “Of the Rights of a Victor over the Vanquished and Their Property”, in John Pawley Bate, transl., Synopsis of the Law of Nations, volume 2 (The Translation), Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, →OCLC, page 307:

     [T]he victor does not acquire the regal rights even of a conquered and captured King, unless he has won those rights by arms also or has obtained them by agreement. […] The same must be admitted if it be an absolute monarch who falls into the power of his enemy, as Bazajet [i.e., Bayezid I] fell into the power of Tamerlane [i.e., Timur]; and this is rightly so, since captivity is comparable to death, […]

   • 1996, José Saramago, translated by Giovanni Pontiero, History of the Siege Of Lisbon […] (A Harvest Book), New York, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace & Company, →ISBN, page 32:

     [T]his is the legitimate outburst of someone who, having been ironically reprimanded for inventing ingenuous errors, [he] will have to allow the errors of others to pass, when what he is tempted to do, and rightly so, is to fill the margins of the page with a flurry of indignant deleaturs, […]

   • 2021 July 6, Phil McNulty, “Italy Beat Spain on Penalties: ‘Pure Theatre as Italy Present Formidable Obstacle in Final’”, in BBC Sport‎^[1], archived from the original on 29 April 2024:

     Italy's progress throughout Euro 2020 has been gathering momentum from their opening win against Turkey and after overcoming Belgium and Spain in the knockout stage they will fear no-one and rightly so.