FIRST-RATE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does first-rate mean? 

• FIRST-RATE (adjective)
  The adjective FIRST-RATE has 1 sense:

1. of the highest quality

  Familiarity information: FIRST-RATE used as an adjective is very rare.

• FIRST-RATE (adverb)
  The adverb FIRST-RATE has 1 sense:

1. quite well

  Familiarity information: FIRST-RATE used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FIRST-RATE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of the highest quality

Synonyms:

A-one; ace; crack; first-rate; super; tiptop; top-notch; topnotch; tops

Context example:

she is absolutely tops

Similar:

superior (of high or superior quality or performance)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

• FIRST-RATE (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Quite well

Synonyms:

first-rate; very well

Context example:

she doesn't feel first-rate today

 Context examples 

His brain is first-rate, I should think not impressible, but vigorous.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Harriet Smith has some first-rate qualities, which Mrs. Elton is totally without.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Here's a first-rate seaman, Cap'n Smollett, sails the blessed ship for us.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Pausing to turn a page, the lad saw her looking and, with boyish good nature offered half his paper, saying bluntly, "want to read it? That's a first-rate story."

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

In this case the matter was simplified by Brunton’s intelligence being quite first-rate, so that it was unnecessary to make any allowance for the personal equation, as the astronomers have dubbed it.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"That is a first-rate idea," said the Lion. "One would almost suspect you had brains in your head, instead of straw."

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

I’d have a dead dockyard contractor as a figure-head for every first-rate in the fleet, and a provision dealer for every frigate.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But I could not see how this could be done in their country, where the smallest wherry was equal to a first-rate man of war among us; and such a boat as I could manage would never live in any of their rivers.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

From situation, Mrs Clay was, in Lady Russell's estimate, a very unequal, and in her character she believed a very dangerous companion; and a removal that would leave Mrs Clay behind, and bring a choice of more suitable intimates within Miss Elliot's reach, was therefore an object of first-rate importance.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

On the tragic side were the Miss Bertrams, Henry Crawford, and Mr. Yates; on the comic, Tom Bertram, not quite alone, because it was evident that Mary Crawford's wishes, though politely kept back, inclined the same way: but his determinateness and his power seemed to make allies unnecessary; and, independent of this great irreconcilable difference, they wanted a piece containing very few characters in the whole, but every character first-rate, and three principal women.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)