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First in time or place; most advanced; chief in rank or dignity; as, the foremost troops of an army. THat struck the foremost man of all this world. Shak.

In the foremost place or order; among the foremost. J. Webster.

With the head foremost.

nce; hence, figuratively, in an awkward, blundering manner. A fatal genius for going sternforemost. Lowell.

Hindmost; -- opposed to foremost.

wind right astern." De Foe. "Left this strait astern." Drake. To bake astern, to go stern foremost. -- To be astern of the reckoning, to be behind the position given by the reckoning. -- To drop astern, to fall or be left behind. -- To go astern, to go backward, as from the action of currents or winds.…

With the back in advance or foremost; as, to ride backward.

The man who rows the foremost oar in a boat; the bow oar.

A military leader; a warrior. Foremost captain of his time. Tennyson. Captain general. (a) The commander in chief of an army or armies, or of the militia. (b) The Spanish governor of Cuba and its dependent islands. -- Captain lieutenant, a lieutenant with the rank and duties of captain but with a lieutenant's pay, --…

First or foremost; chief; principal. [Archaic] "Our chiefest courtier." Shak. The chiefest among ten thousand. Canticles v. 10.

To plunge into water head foremost; to thrust the body under, or deeply into, water or other fluid. It is not that pearls fetch a high price because men have dived for them. Whately.

Superior prominence; predominance; ascendency. Objects placed foremost ought . . . have dominion over things confused and transient. Dryden.

of heaven, the sun. "So gently shuts the eye day." Mrs. Barbauld. -- Eye of a ship, the foremost part in the bows of a ship, where, formerly, eyes were painted; also, the hawser holes. Ham. Nav. Encyc. -- Half an eye, very imperfect sight; a careless glance; as, to see a thing with half an eye; often figuratively. "…

in battle. A thousand shall fall at thy side. Ps. xci. 7. He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell. Byron.

Foremost; in front of, or in advance of, all others.

Cf. Fore, First, Foremost, Forth, Pro-.]

Foremost part or place. Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle. 2 Sam. xi. 15. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, standing in the forefront for all time, the masters of those who know. J. C. Shairp.

nything which seems to look out, or to be directed forward; the fore or forward part; the foremost rank; the van; -- the opposite to back or rear; as, the front of a house; the front of an army. Had he his hurts before Ay, on the front. Shak.

Wide-reaching power of intellect to comprehend subjects and hold them under survey. The foremost minds of the next . . . era were not, in power of grasp, equal to their predecessors. Z. Taylor.

e, a hole in the bow of a ship, through which a cable passes. -- Hawse piece, one of the foremost timbers of a ship, through which the hawse hole is cut. -- Hawse plug. Same as Hawse block (above). -- To come in at the hawse holes, to enter the naval service at the lowest grade. [Cant] -- To freshen the hawse, to ve…