How to Use in the first place in a Sentence

in the first place

idiom
  • Some go out of their way to hide the habit in the first place.
    David Oliver, USA TODAY, 2 Apr. 2024
  • The Jacksonville shooter shouldn’t have been able to buy the guns in the first place.
    Tori Otten, The New Republic, 26 Sep. 2023
  • This is perhaps how things got here in the first place.
    Angela Watercutter, WIRED, 6 Sep. 2024
  • Wait, how was he sprung from custody in the first place?
    Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 7 July 2023
  • Then there are the places that never adapted to heat in the first place.
    Shannon Osaka, Washington Post, 10 July 2023
  • Causes of Dry Hair How does hair dry out in the first place?
    Audrey Noble, Vogue, 25 Sep. 2024
  • So is Courtney Holt, who landed the deal in the first place.
    Ariel Shapiro, The Verge, 1 Nov. 2023
  • To avoid the honeydew, the best thing is to prevent the insects in the first place.
    Neil Sperry, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 5 July 2024
  • This usual take on Gen Z is what drew Stella to the movie in the first place.
    Katherine Singh, refinery29.com, 13 Sep. 2024
  • But how did scientists lose track of it in the first place?
    Julia Daye, Miami Herald, 7 May 2024
  • But why build such a majestic lodge in the first place?
    Randy Mason, Kansas City Star, 15 May 2024
  • Why would Lee even be attracted to Andy in the first place?
    Marlow Stern, Rolling Stone, 12 Dec. 2023
  • Even though no one had explained to us why we had even been pulled over in the first place.
    Catherine Santino, Peoplemag, 18 Nov. 2023
  • But gay and bi men are far more likely to be exposed to HIV in the first place.
    Benjamin Ryan, NBC News, 7 Aug. 2023
  • What makes these cases unique is that there’s a fight involved in the first place.
    Clio Chang, Curbed, 18 Sep. 2023
  • The best thing to do is to reduce the need for air conditioning in the first place.
    Devika Rao, The Week, 5 July 2023
  • If they’re not needed, why do humans have them in the first place?
    Robert H. Shmerling, Chicago Tribune, 20 Sep. 2023
  • How did Stevens get the local doctor’s name and a phone number in the first place?
    Larry Welborn, Orange County Register, 5 July 2024
  • There are some solid reasons to want to pump up your push-up skills in the first place.
    Christa Sgobba, SELF, 2 Apr. 2024
  • When the week began, he wasn’t even supposed to be pitching for the Dodgers on this trip in the first place.
    Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 8 Sep. 2023
  • But why does The Perfect Couple open with a dance routine in the first place?
    Stephanie McNeal, Glamour, 5 Sep. 2024
  • The kind of thing other celebrities might hide away (or refuse to own in the first place), these are kitschy, fun, and self-aware.
    Angela Serratore, Curbed, 3 Nov. 2023
  • Maybe that was a selfish assumption in the first place.
    Vogue, 8 Apr. 2024
  • In some cases, the agency had to delay awards that took years to secure in the first place.
    Tony Romm, Washington Post, 27 Sep. 2023
  • The best way to treat ingrown hairs, according to Rieder, is to prevent them in the first place.
    Garrett Munce, Men's Health, 20 July 2023
  • That can’t happen without a screening in the first place.
    Karen E. Knudsen, Scientific American, 12 Aug. 2024
  • Such brutality is what prompts some to flee in the first place.
    Gary Saul Morson, WSJ, 1 Sep. 2023
  • Failure would mean a repeat of the tragedy that caused the doctor to turn to religion in the first place.
    Patrick Frater, Variety, 19 Jan. 2024
  • Why was the Electoral College created in the first place?
    Emily Mae Czachor, CBS News, 5 Nov. 2024
  • But some question the field’s overreliance on social media data in the first place.
    Bykai Kupferschmidt, science.org, 31 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'in the first place.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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