Word.ws English Dictionary

straightened up and flew right

straightened up and flew right is the simple past of straighten up and fly right.

Meaning of straighten up and fly right

Verb

straighten up and fly right (third-person singular simple present straightens up and flies right, present participle straightening up and flying right, simple past straightened up and flew right, past participle straightened up and flown right)

  1. (colloquial, idiomatic) To start behaving properly; get one's act together.
    • Now, we are going to straighten up and fly right is what was said. Well, we didn't straighten up and fly right. We continued our wild spending at home and abroad.1973, United States, Foreign assistance and related agencies appropriations for 1974, hearings …, 93-1, Subcommittee on Foreign Operations and Related Agencies …, →OCLC, page 801
    Synonyms:
    get right

Questions about straightened up and flew right

What is straightened up and flew right the simple past of?
Straightened up and flew right is the simple past of straighten up and fly right.

Words near straightened up and flew right in the dictionary

  1. straighten up and fly right
  2. straightenable
  3. straightened
  4. straightened out
  5. straightened up
  6. straightened up and flew right
  7. straightened up and flown right
  8. straightener
  9. straighteners
  10. straightenest
  11. straighteneth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: straightened up and flew right (page history and authors); straighten up and fly right (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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