Crossword clues for first-rate
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
first-rate \first-rate\ adj. 1. of the highest quality; as, a first-rate reporter.
Syn: ace, A-one, first-class, super, tip-top, topnotch, tops(predicate).
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
a. 1 (context military nautical historical English) Describing a ship of the line in the British navy that had over 100 guns on three gundecks. 2 (context by extension English) Exceptionally good. n. (context military nautical historical English) A ship of the line in the British navy that had over 100 guns on three gun decks
WordNet
adj. of the highest quality; "an ace reporter"; "a crack shot"; "a first-rate golfer"; "a super party"; "played top-notch tennis"; "an athlete in tiptop condition"; "she is absolutely tops" [syn: ace, A-one, crack, super, tiptop, topnotch, tops(p)]
adv. quite well; "she doesn't feel first-rate today" [syn: very well]
Wikipedia
First rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for its largest ships of the line. The size and establishment of guns and men changed during the 250 years that the rating system held sway. From the early years of the 18th century, the first rates comprised those ships mounting 80 guns or more on three gundecks.
By end of the 18th century, a first rate could carry more than 850 crew and had a measurement (burthen) tonnage of some 2,000 tons.
Usage examples of "first-rate".
David and Abraham Solomon have the makings of a first-rate asset on their hands but for a simple bridging loan and, in the prevailing climate, they have no chance of obtaining one.
Ethelbert, King of Kent, was Bretwalda for fifty years, and liked it first-rate.
He looked like Saint Stephen after the first volley of stones, with a bruise on his chin and a first-rate black eye, empurpled from browridge to cheekbone and swollen quite shut.
He got first-rate sides of beef from the commissary for the dogs, he explained.
He saw in it a first-rate slave hunting-ground, but it became the starting-point for trade and intercourse with the Negro States of the Senegal and the Gambia, to the south and east.
What I heard from the creative side was that a number of first-rate writer-producers would be interested in working with me on a new sitcom.
Either as a cut flower, or a decorative subject for the borders or rockwork, it is a first-rate plant, being neat and showy.
Shun it as you would a wild hyeny with a firebrand tied to his tale, and while you air abowt it you will do a first-rate thing for yourself and everybody abowt you by shunnin all kinds of intoxicatin lickers.
Then everybody thought himself bound to sing, and they were not at all first-rate vocalists by any means.
I wish the MCACwhich has been a leader on the crime issuecould persuade county commissioners to scrape up big money for more first-rate teachers.
If the alliance had come about in 1938 or 1939, as it might have done, after long and bitter controversies, with the Popular Fronters shouting on one side and the Tory press playing Red Russia for all it was worth on the other, there would have been a first-rate political crisis, probably a General Election and certainly the growth of an openly pro-Nazi party in Parliament, the army, etc. But by June 1941 Stalin had come to appear as a very small bogey compared with Hitler, the pro-Fascists had mostly discredited themselves, and the attack happened so suddenly that the advantages and disadvantages of a Russian alliance had not even had time to be discussed.
If the alliance had come about in 1938 or 1939, as it might have done, after long and bitter controversies, with the Popular Fronters shouting on one side and the Tory press playing Red Russia for all it was worth on the other, there would have been a first-rate political crisis, probably a General Election and certainly the growth of an openly pro-Nazi party in Parliament, the army, etc.
Late Marriages The marriage of a first-rate man, when it takes place at all, commonly takes place relatively late.
But wherever two natures have a great deal in common, the conditions of a first-rate quarrel are furnished ready-made.
The cavalcade set off preceded by huntsmen, and armed with first-rate rifles, followed by a pack of pointers barking joyously as they bounded through the bushes.