Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The ordinal number matching the number one in a series.
- noun The one coming, occurring, or ranking before or above all others.
- noun The beginning; the outset.
- noun Music The voice or instrument highest in pitch or carrying the principal part.
- noun The transmission gear or corresponding gear ratio used to produce the range of lowest drive speeds in a motor vehicle.
- noun The winning position in a contest.
- noun First base.
- noun A first baseman.
- adjective Corresponding in order to the number one.
- adjective Coming before all others in order or location.
- adjective Occurring or acting before all others in time; earliest.
- adjective Ranking above all others, as in importance or quality; foremost.
- adjective Music Being highest in pitch or carrying the principal part.
- adjective Of, relating to, or being the transmission gear or corresponding gear ratio used to produce the range of lowest drive speeds in a motor vehicle.
- adjective Of, related to, or being a member of the US president's household.
- adverb Before or above all others in time, order, rank, or importance.
- adverb For the first time.
- adverb Rather; preferably.
- adverb In the first place; to begin with; firstly.
- idiom (off/thing) From the start; immediately.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Before all others in place or progression, rank, order of time, etc.
- Hence Sooner; before doing or suffering (that is, so as not to do or suffer) some act or result: as, I will not do it, I will die first.
- noun Time; time granted; respite: same as
frist . - Being before all others; being the initial unit or aggregate in order of occurrence or arrangement as to time, place, or rank: the ordinal of one.
- Foremost in time; preceding all others of the kind in order of time: as, Adam was the first man; I was the first guest to arrive.
- Foremost in place; before all others from the point of view or consideration: as, the first man in a rank or line.
- Foremost in importance or estimation; before or superior to all others in character, quality, or degree: as, Demosthenes was the first orator of Greece; the part of first villain in a play; wheat of the first grade; specifically, in music, highest or chief among several voices or instruments of the same class: as, first alto; first horn.
- Synonyms Primary, primordial, original, primitive, pristine, earliest. See comparison under primary.
- Highest, chief, principal, capital, foremost, leading.
- noun That which is first; the beginning. or that which makes or constitutes a beginning.
- noun In music: The voice or instrument that takes the highest or chief part in its class, especially in an orchestra or chorus; a leader of a part or group of performers.
- noun The interval and concord of the unison or prime. See
unison and prime. - noun Same as
first base (which see, above). - noun The highest rank in an examination for honors: as, he got a first in mathematics. See
double-first . - noun Immediately.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Mus.) The upper part of a duet, trio, etc., either vocal or instrumental; -- so called because it generally expresses the air, and has a preëminence in the combined effect.
- adverb Before any other person or thing in time, space, rank, etc.; -- much used in composition with adjectives and participles.
- adverb at the beginning or origin.
- adverb at one time or another; at the beginning or end.
- adjective Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest
- adjective Foremost; in front of, or in advance of, all others.
- adjective Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.
- adjective See under
Blush . - adjective from the first or original source; without the intervention of any agent.
- adjective (Plastering) the solid foundation of coarse stuff, on which the rest is placed; it is thick, and crossed with lines, so as to give a bond for the next coat.
- adjective Sunday; -- so called by the Friends.
- adjective [U.S.], [Eng.] The floor next above the ground floor.
- adjective (Feudal Law), (Eng. Eccl. Law) The earliest effects or results.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I recognize this puts me a bit at odds with the first commenter, but Epicurious is usually my *first* archive to search, given how it draws on decades of recipes from Gourmet and Bon Appetit.
Bitten Back: Readers’ Thoughts on the Best Cookbooks - Bitten Blog - NYTimes.com 2008
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Promoted to Headline (H3) on 6/26/08: Why were 'first responders' de-contaminated at the Pentagon? yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'Why were \'first responders\' de-contaminated at the Pentagon? '
Why were 'first responders' de-contaminated at the Pentagon? 2008
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A lot of this work has produced some exciting physical chemistry including the first observation of gravitational separation of isotopes and gases in a column..first predicted by Gibbs and observed many tens of decades later.
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The music played in the orchestra was very beautiful; and the officer, who had behaved so politely to us in permitting the gates, on the first night of our arrival, to be opened, seated on a high stool, rose conspicuously above the other musicians, and seemed indeed the _first fiddle_.
A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden 2nd edition William A. Ross
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To manure their date-groves they use the fins of a species of ray fish called _awwal_, steeped in water till they are putrid; _awwal_, by the way, was an ancient name of the Island of Bahrein, perhaps because it was the first island of the group in size, _awwal_ in Arabic meaning _first_.
Southern Arabia Mabel Bent
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She feared that when for the first time I found myself not _first_ considered in all arrangements, I might fail in those particular points of conduct in which she was most anxious I should triumph.
The Story of the White-Rock Cove Anonymous
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Of course, at such first meeting, all the preliminaries prescribed as forming the _first_ movement of the act should be carried out _to the limit_.
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The first legislature of Virginia was convened under the administration of Governor Sir George Yeardley, in the year 1626; but before this we find, during the _first_ administration of Governor
The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852 Various
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A mortality of 53 for the first four years of life is smaller than any district known in the United States, even to-day, can show for the _first_ year of life _alone_.
Applied Eugenics Paul Popenoe 1933
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Aesthetic_ that the _concept_ depends upon the _intuition_, which is the first degree, the primary and indispensable thing, so it is proved in the _Philosophy of the Practical_ that _Morality_ or _Ethic_ depends upon _Economic_, which is the _first_ degree of the practical activity.
Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic Benedetto Croce 1909
yarb commented on the word first
I take pleasure in being first to disembark buses, planes, trains and ferries.
April 30, 2010
TankHughes commented on the word first
Awwww, I just saw the first comment for this and I thought I could be "First! on first, but no.
April 15, 2019
bilby commented on the word first
Clear runway over at firstest.
April 22, 2019