first

first: first [fʉrst]

adj.

[ME < OE fyrst, lit., foremost, superl. of fore, before (see FORE), akin to OHG furist, Ger fürst, prince, lit., foremost < IE base * per-, beyond > L prae, before, Gr para, beside, beyond]

1. preceding all others in a series; before any other; 1st: used as the ordinal of ONE

2. happening or acting before all others; earliest

3. ranking before all others; foremost in rank, quality, importance, etc.; principal

4. designating the slowest forward gear ratio of a motor vehicle transmission; LOW¹ (adj. 21)

5. Music playing or singing the part highest in pitch or the leading part

adv.

1.

a) before any other person or thing; at the beginning

b) before doing anything else

2. as the first point; to begin with

3. for the first time

4. sooner; preferably

n.

1. the one before the second

2. any person, thing, class, place, etc. that is first

3. the first day of a month

4. the beginning; start

5. a first happening or thing of its kind

6. [pl.] the best quality of merchandise

7. the winning place in a race or competition

8. the FIRST (adj. 4) gear of a motor vehicle transmission; LOW¹ (n. a)

☆ 9. Baseball short for FIRST BASE

10. Music the highest or leading voice or instrument in an ensemble

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first thing

as the first thing; before anything else

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in the first place

firstly; to begin with

Synonyms:

Foremost, leading / Chief, highest, principal, capital / Earliest / Primary, elementary, rudimentary / Primitive, primeval, pristine, In the first place, at the outset, in the beginning, first and foremost, before anything else

Look at other dictionaries:

first — [ fɜrst ] function word *** First can be used in the following ways: as a number: This is the first car I ve ever owned. as a pronoun: It s often tougher for a team in their second year than their first. as an adverb: Speak to me first, before… … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
first — ► ORDINAL NUMBER 1) coming before all others in time or order; earliest; 1st. 2) before doing something else specified or implied. 3) foremost in position, rank, or importance. 4) informal something never previously achieved or occurring. 5) Brit … English terms dictionary
First — (f[ e]rst), a. [OE. first, furst, AS. fyrst; akin to Icel. fyrstr, Sw. & Dan. f[ o]rste, OHG. furist, G. f[ u]rst prince; a superlatiye form of E. for, fore. See {For}, {Fore}, and cf. {Formeer}, {Foremost}.] 1. Preceding all others of a series… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
First — or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one. It can also refer to:* FIRST, a science and technology competition founded by Dean Kamen * FIRST (CERT), Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams * Ruth First (1925 1982), a leading anti… … Wikipedia
First In — – First Out (engl. etwa „Zuerst rein – zuerst raus“), häufig abgekürzt mit FIFO, gleichbedeutend mit First Come First Served bzw. FCFS, bezeichnet jegliche Verfahren der Speicherung, bei denen diejenigen Elemente, die zuerst gespeichert wurden,… … Deutsch Wikipedia
First TV — was the name of a cable television network that was operated in New Zealand s two main North Island cities, Auckland and Wellington by Telecom New Zealand in the 1990s.Trial stage First Media was a stupidly owned subsidiary of Telecom NZ. First… … Wikipedia
first — 1. When used with a number, first (like last) normally precedes it, as in the first three cars. This practice dates from the 16c, when first came to be regarded more as an adjective than as a noun; before that time, it was common to say the two… … Modern English usage
First — steht für: die obere Schnittkante von zwei Dachflächen, siehe Dachfirst eine Reihe von Gipfeln eines Gebirges, siehe Gebirgskamm in der Geologie die Schicht im unmittelbaren Kontakt zum Bezugshorizont, siehe Hangendes im Bergbau für das… … Deutsch Wikipedia
first — I (earlier) adjective aboriginal, anterior, earlier, earliest, embryonic, inaugural, incipient, introductory, previous, primeval, primitive, prior associated concepts: at first impression, first lien, first reading, first stages of litigation, on … Law dictionary
first — (adj., adv.) O.E. fyrst foremost, superlative of FORE (Cf. fore); from P.Gmc. *furisto (Cf. O.S. fuirst first, O.H.G. furist, O.N. fyrstr, Dan. fèrste, O.Fris. ferist, M.Du. vorste prince, Du. vors … Etymology dictionary

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