[f. FIRST a.]
† 1. nonce uses. a. intr. As rendering of Gr. πρωτεύειν: To have the first place, be first. b. trans. With allusion to the vb. to second (see context): To advance (a person) to the first place.
1625. A. Gill, Sacr. Philos., iv. 49. That Hee may bee Εν πᾶσι πρωτεύων firsting, or having the first place or preheminence in all things.
1656. S. H., Gold. Law, 11. These also will befool you … to gain you to second the King, that so ye may second, and so first them.
† 2. trans. To propose (a resolution), ‘move’ (as opposed to ‘seconding’). Obs.
1656. Burton’s Diary (1828), I. 66. The question in the morning, which was firsted and seconded, was to agree with the Committee, that Nayler’s offence has horrid blasphemy. Ibid. (1658), III. 193. There is no rule that the question which is firsted and seconded shall be the question.
3. dial. To ‘set out’ with the hoe.
1860. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XXI. ii. 386. The swedes that were sown in 1858, after the foregoing crops, were not ‘firsted’ (set out with the hoe) until August 6th, and yet they proved one of the finest pieces in the district.
