in the first place

idiom

—used at the end of a sentence to indicate what was true or what should have been done at the beginning of a situation

We should never have gone there in the first place.

I didn't care much for the job in the first place.

—used when listing the most important parts of something or the most important reasons for something

I'm not going to tell you because, in the first place, it's none of your business, and in the second place, you would tell everyone else.

Examples of in the first place in a Sentence

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This all feels a little unfair to Barb, who never wanted to split up the siblings in the first place. —

Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 7 Feb. 2025 My connection to Los Angeles is the outdoor spaces, that is what drew me to live here in the first place. —

The Editors Of Ad, Architectural Digest, 7 Feb. 2025 For his wife, Dolores Canales, co-founder of the California Families Against Solitary Confinement, the film offers a chance to address the rhetoric pushing for solitary confinement in the first place. —

Manuel Betancourt, Los Angeles Times, 6 Feb. 2025 That’s how Davis got here in the first place when the New Orleans Pelicans traded him to L.A. in June 2019. —

Jim Alexander, Orange County Register, 5 Feb. 2025 See all Example Sentences for in the first place

Dictionary Entries Near in the first place

in the first instance

in the first place

in the flower of one's youth

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“In the first place.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/in%20the%20first%20place. Accessed 10 Feb. 2025.

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