Question of the Day #509

"This exercise, and the rest of it—actually getting to trial, rather than trying to settle, as most people caught dead to rights doing something wrong (or at least actionable) would do—came after Musk tried to dig his way out rather than admit defeat."
From the 6th paragraph of this article at the Observer.

上記の文で、dead to rightsの意味は？
In the sentence above, what does "dead to rights" mean?

答えは、コメントに書いてください。
Write your answer in the Comments.

明日、ここに答えを書きます。
I will add the answer and other remarks here tomorrow.

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解答

意味：
英辞郎によると、

〈米話〉〔犯人逮捕などが〕現行犯で、現場で

イギリスでは、bang to rightsと言います。

Answer

According to Cambridge Dictionary:

in the act of doing something wrong or illegal

Examples

• Even if a kid is caught dead to rights with alcohol, we can't punish him.
• Because of the video replay, the ref had him dead to rights on the penalty.
• Trump’s lawyers have formed joint defense agreements with Jerome Corsi, who Mueller appears to have dead to rights on both perjury and attempts to collude with Wikileaks.  (New York Magazine)
• “Because he knows that after over two decades of sexually abusing underage girls, we blew this wide open and have him and his enablers dead to rights.” (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
• “The shooter hasn’t been caught yet, but the police have him dead to rights.”

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