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Right smart   /raɪt smɑrt/   Listen
Right smart

adverb
1.
To a great degree or by a great distance; very much ('right smart' is regional in the United States).  Synonym: way.  "Way off base" , "The other side of the hill is right smart steeper than the side we are on"






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"Right smart" Quotes from Famous Books



... Davis and the cause of Southern independence. He will treat you as though you were one of the royal blood if you can only get to him; but there's the trouble. He lives in the southwestern part of the State, and that's a right smart piece from here." ...
— Rodney The Partisan • Harry Castlemon

... "Ah done learn a right smart long time ago that Ah don' know all there is to know about mah neighbors," said he. "We-uns done think of Brer Toad as ugly-lookin' fo' so long that we-uns may have overlooked something. Ah don' reckon Brer Toad can sing, but Ah 'lows that perhaps he thinks he can. What do you-alls say ...
— The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad • Thornton W. Burgess

... Church, and my friend was resting on the hotel verandah, when she heard two American ladies talking. "My dear," said one of them, "you ought to have come up to that Garrison Church. I tell you, it was a right smart, snappy, dandy little Service, with a Colonel in full uniform reading selections from the Bible ...
— Here, There And Everywhere • Lord Frederic Hamilton

... I do believe," rejoined Mrs. Younker; "for she's hung over you, sir, (turning to the wounded man) night and day, like a mother over her child, until we've had to use right smart authority to make her go to bed, for fear as how she'd be ...
— Ella Barnwell - A Historical Romance of Border Life • Emerson Bennett

... he said, "with one of them telescopes to study the heavenly bodies. He was a Yankee, seh, and a right smart one, too. And one night we was watchin' for some little old fallin' stars that he said was due, and I saw some lights movin' along across the mesa pretty lively, an' I sang out. But he told me it was just the train. And I told him I didn't know yu' could see the cyars that plain from ...
— The Virginian - A Horseman Of The Plains • Owen Wister

... stiddy in North Car'lina as the rest on 'em," repeated Mr. Stamps. "When I was younger, I kinder launched out wunct. I thought I could make money faster ef I wus in a more money-makin'er place, 'n' I launched out. I went North a spell 'n' was thar a right smart while. I sorter stedded the folks' ways 'n' I got to knowin' 'em when I seed 'em 'n' heerd 'em talk. I know'd her for one the minit I set eyes on her 'n' heern her speak. I didn't say nuthin' much to the rest on ye, 'cause I know's ye'd ...
— In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... wur a clar field, 'ceptin' your center war still solid, and they fell back all but a thin line. We charged up onto thet and broke it, killed lot's uf 'em, and gobbled up lots more, but it tuk us a right smart time, fur them was stubborn chaps ...
— The Wedge of Gold • C. C. Goodwin

... better thing than that. I drawed the idee ez soon ez I seen you an' Pete hyar this evenin' so onexpected. 'Them's my pardners,' I sez ter myself. 'Pete ter holp dig an' tote ef the box be heavy. An' you ter find out edzac'ly whar it be hid.' You uns an' Loralindy hev been keepin' company right smart, an' ye kin toll Loralindy along till she lets slip jes' whar that lily air growin'. I'll be bound ez she likes ye a sight better 'n that Renfrow—leastwise ef 't warn't fur his letter, honeyin' her up with complimints, an' she hevin' the chance o' tollin' him on through doin' him sech faviors, ...
— A Chilhowee Lily - 1911 • Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)

... the business sat around a large block or stand, upon which the slave to be sold was placed, the auctioneer standing beside him. When I was placed upon the block, a Mr. McGee came up and felt of me and asked me what I could do. "You look like a right smart nigger," said he, "Virginia always produces good darkies." Virginia was the mother of slavery, and it was held by many that she had the best slaves. So when Mr. McGee found I was born and bred in that state he seemed satisfied. ...
— Thirty Years a Slave • Louis Hughes

... wanted to eat and couldn't run down, we was right smart 'bout ketchin' in traps. We cotch lots of wild tukkeys and partidges in traps and nets. Long Crick runned through our plantation and the river warn't no fur piece off. We sho' did ketch the fishes, mostly ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves: Volume IV, Georgia Narratives, Part 1 • Works Projects Administration

... rock, en w'iles Mr. Man gwine 'long bidout lookin' back, he ondo de meat en tie de rock ter de bamboo line, en w'en Brer Fox foller on, sho' nuff, dar lay de meat. Mr. Man, he drug de rock, he did, en Brer Rabbit he keep de flies off, twel atter dey gone on right smart piece, en den w'en Mr. Man look 'roun', whar ...
— Nights With Uncle Remus - Myths and Legends of the Old Plantation • Joel Chandler Harris

... we get a good dozen, small broilin' size, I'm goin' to show you how to cook 'em. A mussel, my boy, is a sort of lefthanded cousin to an oyster, only he lacks the salt water and a good many of the finer points; a right smart like a good many men, and I want to tell you another thing—one of the finest pearls that sold in a jewelry store in Cincinnati for fifteen hundred dollars, was taken from a mussel that come out of the ...
— Shawn of Skarrow • James Tandy Ellis

... responded the old mariner, clambering down into the Flying Fish. "Say, this is quite a right smart contraption, ain't she?" ...
— The Boy Scouts of the Eagle Patrol • Howard Payson

... "If all them that hollers for justice the loudest got it done to them, Mr. Dunke, there'd be a right smart shrinkage in ...
— A Texas Ranger • William MacLeod Raine

... does find out," he murmured, with unwilling admiration. "You see Ah was right smart glad about the baby, 'n 'bout M'lissy bein' so well, 'n Ah jus' took a little; 'n Pink Pressley was awful aggravatin', 'n Ah jus' 'lowed Ah didn' want nothin' t' interrup' mah joy," he ended, looking up with a humorous twinkle that brought a responsive smile ...
— A Tar-Heel Baron • Mabell Shippie Clarke Pelton

... steamboat—but dar de gals had to bid good-bye to all dar fren's. Such a hollerin' and yellin' an' takin'-on you nebber heerd, Miss' Fairdealer. It was a little lonesome, landin' in de midst ob a right smart piece ob timber, like a many another along de Big Muddy, whar de boats stop to wood up—fearsome-enough place any day, but at night, wid dem tar-barrels a-flarin' an' dem women a-screechin'—some on 'em gone clean crazy, and all on 'em actin' zif dey had—it war more like dat place ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 20, August 1877 • Various

... heated no less than four times during the day, and the savory odor from the numerous dishes taken therefrom bespoke a plentiful repast for the apple-parers. I was kept from school that day to take part in the grand preparations going forward. Aunt made me quite happy that morning by saying "I was a right smart handy boy, and could help along amazingly" if I would stay from school. I would have done much more than this for the few words of commendation bestowed upon me by my aunt, who was usually so hard to please. Neat as was her daily household arrangements, ...
— Walter Harland - Or, Memories of the Past • Harriet S. Caswell

... do it to oblige you. The most we saw was where a fire had been. Looked like a right smart fire. They was plenty o' ...
— The Girl at the Halfway House • Emerson Hough

... friends," she said, and in her voice was faint suspicion. "Noodles can't have that. He'd never go anywhere for me again if he got that much." Her hand waved his away. "When he comes back, if you'll give him a quarter he'll stand on his head. It's hard and hollow, and he makes right smart standing on it and wriggling his feet." She shook her head. "It would ruin him to give him a ...
— How It Happened • Kate Langley Bosher

... Dat's whar de shoe pinches. I ain't loss notin'. I'se made a heap mo' by doin' fer young Missy. In dis 'fabulation, I doesn't want no 'flections on her, kase dey wouldn't be fair. Now, Kern, you'se right smart. You'se had my 'proval eber sence you took a shine ter Sissy. Ud you belebe it, Elder and frens, dat son-in-law ob mine offered ter s'port me an' me do nuffin but jes' help Sissy and look arter de chil'n. But dat ain't my way. I likes ter ...
— The Earth Trembled • E.P. Roe

... went. He hadn't nothin' but a Bible and Watts' Hymns; yet we used to stay thar all the long winter evenings, and by the light of the fire—we war both so durned pore we couldn't raise a candle atween us—wal, by the light of the fire he larned me, and 'fore long I could spell right smart. ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. II. July, 1862. No. 1. • Various

... right smart settlement up near the headwaters of the creeks, I shouldn't wonder. The cow business is getting to be a mighty profitable one when you don't own any," ...
— Mavericks • William MacLeod Raine

... eating, Big Jerry remarked, "Hit air a powerful fine mornin' fer ter spend huntin', my boy. I reckon yo'll wish ter git inter the woods right smart, an' ef yo' desires ter make a day uv hit, Smiles'll fix ye up er leetle lunch ...
— 'Smiles' - A Rose of the Cumberlands • Eliot H. Robinson

... Also I heard of his being about town till long after midnight. The minute I opened his office door this morning he flew at me like a panther. I told him I had only dropped in on my rounds for an order, as they were running off right smart, and I didn't know but he might like to pick up some bargains. 'Bargains!' he roared, 'don't you know the day? Don't you know it is Friday, the 13th? Go back to that hell-pit and sell, sell, sell.' 'Sell what and how much?' I asked. 'Anything, everything. Give the thieves every share ...
— Friday, the Thirteenth • Thomas W. Lawson

... jest about when the night is darkest, 'less somethin' gits in the way. Here's another branch, Henry. Guess we'd better wade in it a right smart distance. You can't ever be ...
— The Keepers of the Trail - A Story of the Great Woods • Joseph A. Altsheler



Words linked to "Right smart" :   colloquialism, regionalism, considerable



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