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Glite Dictionary
📦 Quite a lot 🌧️ Very much
right smart

right smart

9.9
To a large degree
  • idiom
  • /raɪt smɑrt/
  • Informal
translation icon : bastante

Examples

  • "You ate a right smart," Uncle Coran said.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • That storm caused a right smart amount of damage to the old barn.

  • She was right smart tired after working the whole weekend.

  • He was right smart late for the meeting due to traffic.

Synonyms

a lot
vsright smart
∞ 1.0

To a very great degree

is regional chiefly Southern rather than general everyday usage
much
vsright smart
∞ 1.0

Almost completely but not exactly the same

expresses full strong degree rather than implying incompleteness
way
vsright smart
  • Informal
∞ 6.5

To a very large degree

is regional chiefly Southern rather than general informal use
pretty much
vsright smart
  • Informal
∞ 3.0

Almost completely but not quite

states a clear considerable degree instead of near but incomplete

Antonyms

slightly
885 1.0

A little, not very much

minimally
22 3.7

A very small amount that is almost not noticeable

How Much

greatly
350 1.0
considerably
144 3.4
right smart
  • Informal
9.9
fairly
895 1.0
somewhat
816 2.0
a little
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

right smart positive

Morphology

right + smart

The phrase combines 'right' as an intensifier with 'smart', so a learner who knows 'right' as 'very/completely' could infer an intensified sense; however 'smart' here means 'considerable/a good deal' rather than the common B1 sense 'intelligent'. The specific dialectal/archaic sense and regional usage are not fully predictable from the constituent meanings, so comprehension is partially but not wholly transparent.

Etymology

Right smart may come from right used like 'very' plus smart which once meant 'strong' or 'serious'. That's why, used as an adverb, right smart means 'very much' or 'to a considerable degree'.