in the first place

idiom

1

—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.

2

—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

Recent Examples on the Web

Victoria Atkins, the U.K.’s secretary of state for health and social care, told the House of Commons that the bill was intended to prevent people from ever getting addicted to tobacco products in the first place. —Anna Gordon, TIME, 16 Apr. 2024

Today, tourists who visit Rhodes will find the same gorgeous beaches, boating opportunities, and picturesque cobblestoned streets of the Jewish quarter that drew travelers to the largest of the Dodecanese islands in the first place. —Alison Fox, Travel + Leisure, 15 Apr. 2024

That diversity, and the way the genre fosters community, is part of what drew Huang to romance in the first place. —Lizz Schumer, Peoplemag, 14 Apr. 2024

The fight between Momofuku and the companies targeted by its cease-and-desist letters has, more or less, devolved into an argument over whether the patent office should have granted the trademark in the first place. —Tim Carman, Washington Post, 9 Apr. 2024

It should be noted, however, that among the various theories of how the snakes spread in the first place is that some escaped from South Miami-Dade commercial pet breeders whose facilities were damaged during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. —Ashley Miznazi, Miami Herald, 8 Apr. 2024

So are people who buy weed, as well as those who think weed should never have been legal in the first place. —Jane C. Hu, The Atlantic, 8 Apr. 2024

But lawyers for those who oppose the approach are likely to argue that waiving the debt is unfair to those who already paid back their loans or never took out college loans in the first place. —Michael D. Shear, New York Times, 8 Apr. 2024

Maybe that was a selfish assumption in the first place. —Vogue, 8 Apr. 2024