to come first
87
2.3
- phrasal verb
:
tener prioridad
- The team has got to come first.
- needs come first
The mission comes first, and I'm good with that.
- The mission comes first, and I'm good with that.
- It is important to emphasize that screening comes first and is simple.
- So, you know, science comes first in my view.
- For me, I almost think that comes first, more so than character or even the crime.
- The guest comes first because it's very important, you know?
Examples
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The objective comes first in our work.
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Either way, his needs come first, leaving us with our questions.
Academic text (2014) -
United States has come first in the race.
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And the number one value is treat the patient comes first every time.
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And my partner comes first.
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When I fly, my crew and my plane come first.
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Job comes first, like always.
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The mission comes first, and I'm good with that.
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Their safety comes first.
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In this project, the team decided that safety must come first to ensure everyone is protected.
Antonyms
How Important
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to be the most important / have the highest priority' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'come' (to be placed in an order) with 'first' (preceding all others). This compositional ordering sense is cross-linguistically common and follows standard English usage, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Come first creates a simple picture: think of a race where the words come and first show someone arriving before the others, so they are the winner. That's why the phrase means 'to be most important' or 'to have the highest priority'.