foremost

Positioned in front of (all) others in space, most forward.

She prankes not by hir mistresse side, she preases not to bée / The foremost of the companie, as when she erst was frée.

As I plunged into the reeds, my foremost pursuers emerged from the gap.

Juan Diego hadn’t noticed the other people in the temple, except for what appeared to be two mourners; they knelt in the foremost pew.

Coming before (all) others in time.

[…] of both them, she / (By Pallas counsell) was to haue the grace / Of foremost greeting.

1769, Oliver Goldsmith, The Roman History, London: S. Baker and G. Leigh et al., Volume 1, Chapter 16, p. 254, He was the best horseman, and the swiftest runner of his time. He was ever the foremost to engage, and the last to retreat;

a. 1891, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, in The Shorter Novels of Herman Melville, New York: Fawcett Premier, 1956, Chapter 17, p. 244, a bright young schoolmate of his whom he had seen struck by much the same startling impotence in the act of eagerly rising in the class to be foremost in response to a testing question put to it by the master

Of the highest rank or position; of the greatest importance; of the highest priority.

The exhibition features works by the country’s foremost artists.

Foremost among the workers’ grievances was the company’s failure to address the many safety issues in the plant.

What, shall one of us / That struck the foremost man of all this world / But for supporting robbers, shall we now / Contaminate our fingers with base bribes,

1759, George Colman, The Rolliad, Canto 1, in Prose on Several Occasions: Accompanied with Some Pieces in Verse, London: T. Cadel, 1787, Volume 2, p. 292, And have I then so oft, enrag’d she cried, / My longing soul its foremost wish denied?

Closest to the bow.

I let fall the tiller, turned my back on them, and sat down on the foremost thwart.

In front, prominently forward.

No Man hath more nicely observed our Climate, than the Bookseller who bought the Copy of this Work; He knows to a Tittle what Subjects will best go off in a dry Year, and which it is proper to expose foremost, when the Weather-glass is fallen to much Rain.

1820, John Keats, “Lamia,” Part 1, in Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: Taylor and Hessey, p. 15, She saw the young Corinthian Lycius / Charioting foremost in the envious race,

The little engine stood, tender foremost, at the platform, with its two coaches; [...].

[…] what haunts the heart will, when it is found, leap foremost, blinding the eye and leaving the main of Life in darkness.

First in time.

c. 1618, Philip Massinger, Thomas Middleton and William Rowley, The Old Law, London: Edward Archer, 1656, Act III, Scene 1, p. 41, Alwayes the worst goes foremost, so twill prove I hope

Our thirst, at length, and hunger both sufficed, / I, foremost speaking, ask’d you to the wars

Most importantly.

[…] Mrs. Nickleby, with the utmost sincerity, gave vent to her sorrows after her own peculiar fashion of considering herself foremost,

It seemed as if he had been gently awakened from a long sleep. The corners of his mouth hung down, drugged and paralyzed, and through the gray light of this soft, new-born consciousness it occurred to him first, prime and foremost (order, order, he found himself pleading) that he was not properly articulating.