Definition of "first" [first]

• 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: from the first; at first. (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)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "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? '"
• "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."
• "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."