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FIRST OF ALL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Before anything else
Example:
first we must consider the garter snake
Synonyms:
first; first of all; first off; firstly; foremost
Classified under:
Context examples:
But first of all, there must be an answer written to Mrs. Cole.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
First of all, he had to learn the family of the master.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
And the birds of the air came too, and bemoaned Snowdrop; and first of all came an owl, and then a raven, and at last a dove, and sat by her side.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
"You can't get fresh with me. I want that laundry business finished first of all. Then you can come back and we'll talk for old sake's sake. I told you I was busy. Look at that."
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
First of all, I wish to know whether there is any inn in this neighbourhood known as ‘Elrige’s’?
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Ask him first of all whether he is prepared to sign the papers?
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Why, yes,” I said, “I must see Peggotty first of all.”
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
First of all, I wish you to understand that nothing I tell you now is to be repeated in any public way unless you have my express permission.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I was reading it to Mrs. Cole, and since she went away, I was reading it again to my mother, for it is such a pleasure to her—a letter from Jane—that she can never hear it often enough; so I knew it could not be far off, and here it is, only just under my huswife—and since you are so kind as to wish to hear what she says;—but, first of all, I really must, in justice to Jane, apologise for her writing so short a letter—only two pages you see—hardly two—and in general she fills the whole paper and crosses half.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
First of all, I wish to impress upon you that the boy certainly left of his own free-will.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
