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Crossword clues for at first

The Collaborative International Dictionary
At first

First \First\ (f[~e]rst), adv. Before any other person or thing in time, space, rank, etc.; -- much used in composition with adjectives and participles.

Adam was first formed, then Eve.
--1 Tim. ii. 13.

At first, At the first, at the beginning or origin.

First or last, at one time or another; at the beginning or end.

And all are fools and lovers first or last.
--Dryden.

Wiktionary
at first

prep.phr. (context idiomatic English) initially; at the start.

WordNet
at first

adv. at the beginning; "at first he didn't notice anything strange" [syn: initially, ab initio, at the start]

Usage examples of "at first".

Water spouts up from what's left, at first almost all the way to the ceiling.

Sometimes she would tell Janice about Seth how he had come to stay, and how neither she nor Herb had seen or suspected (at least at first) what was inside Seth, a thing that was being very still, watching them and husbanding its strength and waiting for the right time to come out.

The shotgun goes off twice more, and at first Johnny can't see what this is about, because the blue van is in the way he thinks he can hear shattering glass over the roar of the storm, but that's all.

As with the black-and-chrome van, there's something Nazi-ish about the uniform, but this isn't what catches Johnny's eyes and freezes his vocal cords so he is at first unable to cry a warning.

Johnny went backward at first, then swung around, brushing the splinters of the fallen Hummel figure with his moccasins.

Cammie approached them, stood in front of them, appraised them with an expression Johnny at first mistook for dourness.

SHERIFF STREETER is watching them go with a grin, and does not at first see the batwing doors of The Lady Day Saloon open as MAJOR MURDOCK pushes out on to the sidewalk.

Johnny's mind had gone back to Bill Harris's horrified survey of Poplar Street on the day of his visit back in 1990, Bill at first saying Johnny couldn't be serious, then, seeing he was, asking him what the deal was.

I have been there with him on several occasions, have seen the autistic at first hand, and am not sure I would've believed what Garin was telling me if I hadn't seen some of it for myself.

Then, when I finally did (just a little tiny square I could have covered with the ball of my thumb at first), it seemed like the sound of the hornfels was louder than ever, and I made up my mind that the shaft was going to wait until we were almost out, then fall on us like a hand swatting flies.

He at first mistakes her look for embarrassment, then sees it's deeper.

It knows a moment of utterly uncharacteristic panic when at first nothing happens it is like pushing against a brick wall.

Johnny thinks at first it's an explosion of some sort the end for all of them.

The jottings, after a little study, became much more intelligible than they had looked at first.

I think I was quite impressed with him at first, and the very same day I was in a position to mention Gray's claims to someone else who is one of the biggest men in that field.