the first element in a countable series; "the first of the month"
the first or highest in an ordering or series; "He wanted to be the first"
being the gear producing the lowest drive speed; "use first gear on steep hills"
ranking above all others; "was first in her class"; "the foremost figure among marine artists"; "the top graduate"
preceding all others in time or space or degree; "the first house on the right"; "the first day of spring"; "his first political race"; "her first baby"; "the first time"; "the first meetings of the new party"; "the first phase of his training"
highest in pitch or chief among parts or voices or instruments or orchestra sections; "first soprano"; "the first violin section"; "played first horn"
indicating the beginning unit in a series
before anything else; "first we must consider the garter snake"
the initial time; "when Felix first saw a garter snake"
before another in time, space, or importance; "I was here first"; "let's do this job first"
used of vowels or syllables; pronounced with little or no stress; "a syllable that ends in a short vowel is a light syllable"; "a weak stress on the second syllable"
of leaves etc; growing in pairs on either side of a stem; "opposite leaves"
altogether different in nature or quality or significance; "the medicine's effect was opposite to that intended"; "it is said that opposite characters make a union happiest"- Charles Reade
the other one of a complementary pair; "the opposite sex"; "the two chess kings are set up on squares of opposite colors"
being directly across from each other; facing; "And I on the opposite shore will be, ready to ride and spread the alarm"- Longfellow; "we lived on opposite sides of the street"; "at opposite poles"
moving or facing away from each other; "looking in opposite directions"; "they went in opposite directions"
a book (or manuscript) consisting of large sheets of paper folded in the middle to make two leaves or four pages; "the first folio of Shakespeare's plays"
moving from one place to another and back again; "he traveled back and forth between Los Angeles and New York"; "the treetops whipped to and fro in a frightening manner"; "the old man just sat on the porch and rocked back and forth all day"