first

Study(26)

/fɜːst/

noun 6adj 4adv 2verb 1name 1

Collocations

ADJ.

clean, complete, half, last, olympic

She won her first Olympic medal at the age of just sixteen.

VERB + FIRST

acquired, came, delivered, go, know, plunged, said, sink

She came first in the marathon and won a medal for her achievement.

FIRST + NOUN

child, day, example, i'm, intelligence, opportunity, parliament, runner

I missed my first opportunity to study abroad because I wasn't ready financially.

PREP.

during, in, into, on, out, with

During the first week of school, my daughter made several new friends.

Definitions

adj

Preceding all others of a series or kind; the ordinal of one; earliest.

Hancock was first to arrive.

The first day of September 2013 was a Sunday.

Most eminent or exalted; most excellent; chief; highest.

Demosthenes was the first orator of Greece.

the first violinist

Of or belonging to a first family.

First Cat; First Daughter; First Dog; First Son

Coming right after the zeroth in things that use zero-based numbering.

adv

Before anything else; firstly.

Clean the sink first, before you even think of starting to cook.

I plunged nose first into the water.

For the first time.

I first witnessed a death when I was nine years old.

noun

The person or thing in the first position.

He was the first to complete the course.

Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.

The first gear of an engine.

Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence.

This is a first. For once he has nothing to say.

I remember other firsts: how I wussily asked her out the first time, and the first time I told her I loved her.

First base.

There was a close play at first.

A first-class honours degree.

[Stephen Hawking] […] would go to Cambridge, he said, if they gave him a first, and stay at Oxford if they gave him a second. He got a first.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

noun — the lowest forward gear ratio in the gear box of a motor veh

noun — the time at which something is supposed to begin

adjective — ranking above all others

foremost
world-class

adjective — serving to set in motion

adverb — before anything else

firstly
foremost

adverb — prominently forward

foremost

Antonyms

Idioms & Phrases

love at first sight

an instantaneous attraction

For the young striker and the fans, it was love at first sight.

at first

Initially; at the start; originally.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

in the first place

To begin with; earlier; firstly; originally; at the start.

The question is not whether I still enjoy the job, when I never enjoyed it in the first place.

first come, first served

One will be dealt with in the order in which one arrives.

This complicated situation means that strategically managing services through the central Manchester area and beyond is not possible for signallers in the Greater Manchester area,

first loser

Second place.

Example Bank

Hancock was first to arrive.

Wiktionary

The first day of September 2013 was a Sunday.

Wiktionary

I was the first runner to reach the finish line, and won the race.

Wiktionary

Clean the sink first, before you even think of starting to cook.

Wiktionary

I plunged nose first into the water.

Wiktionary

That concertina was a wonder in its way. The handles that was on it first was wore out long ago, and he'd made new ones of braided rope yarn. And the bellows was patched in more places than a cranberr

Wiktionary

Usage Notes

i Register

In some senses, first is marked as obsolete, British, colloquial, rare. Watch for register when choosing this word.

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