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Glite Dictionary
to straighten up and fly right

to straighten up and fly right

2 8.6
Start to behave properly and follow rules
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : comportarse bien
  • After getting into trouble at school, he decided it was time to straighten up and fly right.

Examples

  • His coach told him to straighten up and fly right if he wanted to stay on the team.

  • ♪ Straighten up and fly right ♪ Cool down, Papa, don't you blow your top ♪

    Better Man (2024)

  • When will you straighten up and fly right?

    Space Chimps (2008)

  • Let's straighten up and fly right.

    The Caine Mutiny (1954)

  • And I'm going to make sure things straighten up and fly right, at least in my world.

  • Straighten up and fly right.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Hey, Coltrane, straighten up and fly right.

    Theodore Rex (1995)

  • Then they'll straighten up and fly right.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • But if you needed a good talking-to, the reverend could make you straighten up and fly right with his words.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • His dad said the only place he was going fast was juvey hall if he didn't straighten up and fly right.

    Fiction book (2000)

Synonyms

to get back on track
vsto straighten up and fly right
62 3.4

Start working normally again after a problem or distraction

is about resuming proper disciplined behavior rather than general course correction
to come right
vsto straighten up and fly right
33 5.0

To get better or fix itself after a time of trouble

is about a person adopting disciplined conduct rather than a situation improving
to straighten out
vsto straighten up and fly right
9 4.2

To begin to behave better after acting badly

is about starting proper disciplined conduct after prior misconduct

Antonyms

to misbehave
37 2.8

To act in a rude way or break rules

to act out
32 5.5

Show strong feelings by behaving badly instead of talking

How Disciplined

to reform
57 4.4
to straighten up and fly right
  • Informal
2 8.6
to shape up
  • Informal
11 4.0
to get one's act together
  • Informal
32 4.6

Surface Forms

straighten up and fly right infinitive
straightened up and flew right past
straightened up and flown right past participle
straightening up and flying right present participle
straightens up and flies right third person singular

Morphology

straighten + up + and + fly + right

The phrase contains partly compositional cues: 'straighten up' can imply improving behaviour and 'right' signals correctness, so learners may infer a general sense of 'behave properly.' However, 'fly right' is metaphorical/idiomatic (the flying metaphor is not literally derivable from 'fly' + 'right'), so the full pragmatic meaning is not fully predictable without prior exposure.

Etymology

Straighten up and fly right comes from an old song and a folk image of a bird pulling itself together; imagine the bird making itself straight (straighten up) and then flying the right way (fly right). So the phrase came to mean 'to start behaving properly'.