rain » reign

Chiefly in:   right as reign

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • Asked whether he felt he was over his illness that would leave him drained some days but not others, Julian explained “I felt fine on both days but I’ve only been racing for an hour but I think now the season has ended so it’s not a problem now. A few beers and in a month I’ll be right as reign and will be back on the road and training for next year.” (British Cycling)
  • Right as reign, Blair declares (Hellen Kennedy, NY Daily News, article title)

Analyzed or reported by:

Michael Quinion at World Wide Words [explains](www.worldwidewords.org/qa…) the idiom _right as rain_.

With the substitution _right as reign_ comes a meaning shift for _right_: in the original, the sense is _all right_, _in good order_, whereas in the eggcorn _right_ sometimes seems to have a meaning approaching to _morally justified_.

See also [_rein>reign_](eggcorns.lascribe.net/eng…) and the reverse eggcorn [_reign>rain_](eggcorns.lascribe.net/eng…) (_rain supreme_).

| link | entered by Chris Waigl, 2004/12/24 |

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