Definition of "foremost" in English

adjective

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

2. Coming before (all) others in time.

   • 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

3. 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.
   • 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?
   • 1846, Frederick Douglass, Reception Speech at Finsbury Chapel, Moorfields, England, May 12, 1846, in My Bondage and My Freedom, New York: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1855, Appendix, pp. 410-411, Of all things that have been said of slavery to which exception has been taken by slaveholders, this, the charge of cruelty, stands foremost, and yet there is no charge capable of clearer demonstration, than that of the most barbarous inhumanity on the part of the slaveholders toward their slaves.
   • 1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, New Delhi: Penguin India, 1994, Section 9.13, p. 580, She was thinking of other matters. What was foremost on her mind was Haresh’s panama hat, which (though he had doffed it) she thought exceptionally stupid.

4. (nautical) Closest to the bow.

adverb

1. In front, prominently forward.

   • 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,

2. 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

3. Most importantly.