The property should be returned to its rightful owner.
He will be given his rightful place in the history books.
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The recovered birds were taken to a secure loft near Brussels, overseen by Belgium's national pigeon federation, and police arranged for DNA testing to match each bird to its rightful owner since the identification rings on all the pigeon's legs had been snipped off.—Sharyn Alfonsi, CBS News, 26 Apr. 2026 In addition to serving on boards of the state’s two largest public pension funds, the controller is in charge of unclaimed property reported to the state and works to get those assets back to its rightful owners.—William Melhado, Sacbee.com, 25 Apr. 2026 He is later suspected of treason when a petition alleges that he had been declared the rightful king by his armorer.—Gitanjali Roy, Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Apr. 2026 The collection, worth millions, comprises some 1,500 oil paintings, including works by Rembrandt and Peter Paul Rubens, though their rightful owners remain unknown.—Devorah Lauter, ARTnews.com, 23 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for rightful
Word History
First Known Use
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Time Traveler
The first known use of rightful was
before the 12th century