FIRST definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary (2025)

The first thing, person, event, or period of time is the one that happens or comes before all the others of the same kind.

She lost 16 pounds in the first month of her diet.

...the first few flakes of snow.

Two years ago Johnson came first in the one hundred metres.

The second paragraph startled me even more than the first.

We did exercises to improve my car control. The first was to drive on ice.

If you do something first, you do it before anyone else does, or before you do anything else.

I do not remember who spoke first, but we all expressed the same opinion.

First, tell me what you think of my products.

Routine questions first, if you don't mind.

When something happens or is done for the first time, it has never happened or been done before.

This is the first time she has experienced disappointment.

It was the first occasion when they had both found it possible to keep a rendezvous.

Anne and Steve got engaged two years after they had first started going out.

I met him first at his house where we had a chat.

An event that is described as a first has never happened before and is important or exciting.

It is a first for New York. An outdoor exhibition of Fernando Botero's sculpture on Park Avenue. [+ for]

The first you hear of something or the first you know about it is the time when you first become aware of it.

We heard it on the TV last night–that was the first we heard of it.

When Mark arrived home that afternoon, it was the first he knew for sure of the surprise party.

You use first when you are talking about what happens in the early part of an event or experience, in contrast to what happens later.

When he first came home he wouldn't say anything about what he'd been doing.

First is also an ordinal.

She told him that her first reaction was disgust.

My first feeling on getting into the cabin was one of dislike for everything I saw.

In order to emphasize your determination not to do a particular thing, you can say that rather than do it, you would do something else first.

[emphasis]

Marry that self-satisfied idiot? She would die first!

You use first when you are about to give the first in a series of items.

Certain guidelines can be given. First, have a heating engineer check the safety of the system.

The first thing, person, or place in a line is the one that is nearest to you or nearest to the front.

Before him, in the first row, sat the President.

First in the queue were two Japanese students.

You use first to refer to the best or most important thing or person of a particular kind.

The first duty of any government must be to protect the interests of the taxpayers.

Imagine winning the local lottery first prize of £5,000.

...first team football.

First is used in the title of the job or position of someone who has a higher rank than anyone else with the same basic job title.

...the First Lord of the Admiralty.

...the first mate of a British tanker.

In British universities, a first is an honours degree of the highest standard.

...an Oxford Blue who took a First in Constitutional History. [+ in]

See first of all

See at first

See come first

See first come first served

See from the first

See at first hand

See not to know the first thing about something

See first off

See put sb/sth first

See first things first

-first combines with nouns like 'head' and 'feet' to indicate that someone moves with the part that is mentioned pointing in the direction in which they are moving.

He overbalanced and fell head-first.

1.

2.

3.

rated, graded, or ranked above all other levels

4.

5. music

6. See first thing

7. See first things first

8. See the first thing

9.

I knew you were a rogue from the first

I couldn't see at first because of the mist

10. education, mainly British

an honours degree of the highest class

Full term: first-class honours degree

11.

something which has not occurred before

a first for the company

12.

the lowest forward ratio of a gearbox in a motor vehicle; low gear

13. music

14. music a rare word for prime (sense 11)

15.

do this first

first, remove the head and tail of the fish

16. See first and last

17. See from first to last

18.

for the first time

I've loved you since I first saw you

19.(sentence modifier)

in the first place or beginning of a series of actions

first I want to talk about criminality

1.

preceding all others in a series; before any other; 1st

see also one

2.

happening or acting before all others; earliest

3.

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

4.

5. Music

playing or singing the part highest in pitch or the leading part

6.

7.

as the first point; to begin with

8.

for the first time

9.

10.

the one before the second

11.

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

12.

the first day of a month

13.

14.

a first happening or thing of its kind

15. [pl.]

16.

17.

18. US, Baseball

19. Music

the highest or leading voice or instrument in an ensemble

1.

being before all others with respect to time, order, rank, importance, etc., used as the ordinal number of one

the first edition

the first vice president

2.Music

highest or chief among several voices or instruments of the same class

first alto

first horn

3.Automobiles low1 (sense 31)

4.(often cap)

the First Lady

Checkers, the first dog

5. See first thing

6.

before all others or anything else in time, order, rank, etc.

7.

before some other thing, event, etc.

If you're going, phone first

8.

for the first time

She first visited Atlanta in 1980

9.

in preference to something else; rather; sooner

I'd die first

10.

in the first place; firstly

11. See first and last

12. See first off

13.

the person or thing that is first in time, order, rank, etc.

14.

the beginning

15.

the first part; first member of a series

16.Music

17.Automobiles

low gear; first gear

She shifted into first and drove off

18.

the winning position or rank in a race or other competition

19.Baseball See first base

20.(usually firsts) Commerce

21. Brit University