first

1. (uncountable) The person or thing in the first position.Examples: "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."

2. (uncountable) The first gear of an engine.

3. (countable) Something that has never happened before; a new occurrence.Examples: "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."

4. (countable, baseball) first baseExamples: "There was a close play at first."

5. (countable, British, colloquial) A first-class honours degree.Examples: "[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."

6. (countable, colloquial) A first-edition copy of some publication.

1. (rare) To propose (a new motion) in a meeting, which must subsequently be seconded.Examples: "This motion has been firsted and seconded. I desire to third it."; "Sure—er—well, the motion was firsted and seconded that we kick ’em out; […]"; "Sure, Brother Severn, I second that motion. If you hadn’t got ahead of me I’d have firsted it myself."

1. (obsolete) Time; time granted; respite.