rightwardsadv.n.adj.
/ˈrʌɪtwədz/, U.S. /ˈraɪtwərdz/ A. adv.
1. In the region to the right of a person or thing; on the right-hand side; = rightward adv. 2. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > politics > party politics > groups or attitudes right to left > [adverb] > towards the right
rightwards1585
1585 J. Blagrave Math. Iewel 18 At the other diametre leftwards [symbol] to beginne, and rightwards ♎.
1612 A. Hopton Concordancy of Yeares xlvi. 187 Seek what you pay by ye l in one of ye left rowes descending vnder pounds, answering to which rightwards vnder hundreds is what it commeth vnto at 112 ye hundred.
1846 Cambr. & Dublin Math. Jrnl. (ed. 2) 1 82 It is not the distance between two points, but the distance of one point rightwards or leftwards of another.
1856 R. F. Burton Personal Narr. Pilgrimage to El-Medinah (U.S. ed.) xiv. 179 Rightwards, broad streaks of lilac-colored mists were thick with gathered dew, there pierced and thinned by the morning rays.
1878 Fun 21 Aug. 82/2 Leftwards the crags stood out so bold and grim,..Rightwards the purple mountains, tender, dim.
1914 P. Coleman Co-ordinate Geom. i. 11 It is necessary to describe the positions of points which lie leftwards instead of rightwards from the origin, or above instead of below it [sic].
1929 Papers Brit. School Rome 11 19 To the right, a maenad approaches with snake and thyrsus: this completed the picture rightwards, for there are traces of the handle.
2.
a. In the direction of the right hand; towards the right; = rightward adv. 1a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > direction > specific directions > [adverb] > in sideways direction > to right and left > towards the right
righta1500
rightward1555
rightwards?1597
right-handed1841
dextrally1881
?1597 J. Blagrave Apol. & Addition to Vranicall Astrolabe sig. B3 The remoue againe the nooneline two howers rightwards from 10 of clocke.
1612 A. Hopton Concordancy of Yeares xlix. 242 Enter this little ensuing table, finding ye Prime in the margent vpon ye left hand, from whence proceed rightwards vntill you come vnder the Dominical letter of ye proposed yeare.
1865 D. Masson Recent Brit. Philos. 275 There has similarly been a drift rightwards.
1892 A. Blunt & W. S. Blunt tr. Abu Zaid Stealing of Mare 99 When the Emir had heard, then turned he rightwards and leftwards, Looking around in his pride like a pawn.
1910 L. G. Rice Pract. Graphol. xvii. 146 When a signature is ‘back hand’ and the body of the writing is rightwards, the writer is really affectionate, but does not wish to appear so.
1963 Gas Welding of Aluminium (rev. ed.) 36 There are three recognised methods of gas welding: (1) horizontally leftwards,..(2) horizontally rightwards (by which the flame post-heats the weld deposit), [etc.].
1990 Mountain July 10/2 This sustained route takes the wall..to an obvious overlap, where it trends rightwards to join the groove of The Cumbrian at about one-third height.
2006 Vertical Dec. 16 We climbed the couloir and then traversed rightwards onto a mixed buttress and up to the crest of NW Ridge.
b. Towards the political right; in a conservative direction; = rightward adv. 1b.
ΚΠ
1874 Hour 27 Jan. 5/2 If the Cabinet leans Leftwards the Right complains, and if it leans Rightwards the Left is indignant.
1900 Atlantic Monthly July 120/2 That he might discover what they thought of the experiment as a journalistic departure rightwards.
1925 S. Huddleston France & French i. iii. 38 France..stood solitary, surrounded by Spain, where a military dictatorship was still in existence; by Italy, where the Fascistes were in power; by Germany, which was moving Rightwards; [etc.].
1950 Internat. Affairs 26 472 As allied controls are relaxed, I believe the Germans will follow their natural bent rightwards into the more nationalistic parties.
1968 Listener 7 Nov. 610/3 The novelist Kingsley Amis is regarded, by himself among others, as having moved ‘rightwards’ with the years.
1971 P. Worsthorne Socialist Myth iii. 33 Any Labour Government has to lean over Rightwards to avoid being suspected of lack of patriotism.
1991 Canberra Times 23 July 7/3 Political analysts said VPN, which is part of the governing coalition, had moved rightwards.
2011 Independent 27 Sept. (Viewspaper section) 5/4 Thatcher seized the collapse of the old, failed, corporatist model to move Britain rightwards.
B. n.
The direction or region to the right (of something). Frequently to the rightwards (of) (as rightward n.).
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > direction > specific directions > [phrase] > from the side > in direction of right side
to (the) rightward (of)1814
rightwards1902
1902 Ld. Kelvin in London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 3 275 Let δ denote the excess of the sum of the rightwards of these attractions above the leftwards.
1917 Albury Banner & Wodonga Express (Austral.) 18 May 28/2 We took a few prisoners during a small encounter yesterday night to the rightwards of our position.
1928 West Austral. (Perth) 8 Feb. 15/1 The Queen's throne was removed,..only the King's chair being on the dais, with the Prince of Wales sitting on a lesser throne on his rightwards.
1955 Mirror (Perth, Austral.) 23 July 13/4 Side and to the rightwards with right foot. Replace weight on left foot.
1963 Kobe Univ. Econ. Rev. 9 77 National saving is positive in the rightwards of R and it is negative in the leftwards of R.
2000 IEEE Internat. Conf. Syst., Man, & Cybernetics I. 510/1 This shift is explained by the shift of the function to the rightwards in Fig. 2.
C. adj.
1. Directed, tending, or moving towards the right; (also occasionally) situated on the right-hand side; = rightward adj. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > direction > specific directions > [adjective] > having sideways direction > directed towards the right
right-handed1767
rightward1825
rightwards1917
1917 H. J. Watt Psychol. of Sound ix. 189 For any point r with a rightwards angle of incidence to the line joining the ears a point l can be found with an equal leftwards angle of incidence to that line.
1923 E. M. W. Tillyard Hope Vases Introd. 9 Were it not for the rather dusty red of the clay, the lustreless quality of the varnish and the rightwards direction of the laurel-wreath, one could hardly tell that it was South Italian.
1944 Manch. Guardian 20 Nov. 2/7 Johnson,..confounding in welcome fashion the theory that this rightwards move was an obsession, skipped back into the cleared corner and scored a memorable try far out.
1979 Trans. Philol. Soc. 57 In a language with postposed subordinate clauses we would predict an overwhelming tendency for rightwards deletion in gapping and conjunction reduction.
2012 Weina Dianzi Jishu: Micronanoelectronic Technol. Aug. 526 An asymmetric droplet oscillation characterized by the periodical leftwards and rightwards waggling of the droplet.
2. That tends or moves towards the political right; = rightward adj. 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > politics > party politics > groups or attitudes right to left > [adjective] > right
illiberal1649
white?1740
right1794
conservative1802
centre-right1822
agricolous1825
hunkerish1857
right wing1857
rightward1887
rightist1894
rightwards1931
right-of-centre1937
establishmentarian1962
righty1970
neo-con1979
New Rightist1981
1931 Socialist Rev. July 257 The result of Russian propaganda and Russian dictation has been to..suppress the natural shedding of really Socialist elements which would otherwise have been the normal consequence of this Rightwards drift.
1950 Jrnl. Compar. Legislation 32 45 Soon after the new Constitution came into operation, there began the gradual Rightwards trend.
1968 Times 12 July 10/6 (heading) Sir Frederic's rightwards drift.
1985 Economist 12 Oct. 92/2 Portuguese voters opted for change in a rightwards direction in the general election.
2006 S. Collini Absent Minds viii. 193 The rightwards shift in politics and political discourse in the 1980s increased a tendency to use ‘intellectuals’ as a near-synonym for ‘parasites’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adv.n.adj.1585