Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Greatest in age or seniority.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Oldest; most advanced in age; that was born first: as, the eldest son or daughter.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Oldest; longest in duration.
- adjective Born or living first, or before the others, as a son, daughter, brother, etc.; first in origin. See
Elder . - adjective (Card Playing) the player on the dealer's left hand.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
superlative form ofold : mostold .;greatest inage orseniority .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the offspring who came first in the order of birth
- adjective first in order of birth
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Otto is what I called my eldest son who is in the imperial navy!
The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume II Gerhart Hauptmann 1904
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They are brothers; and the eldest is a baronet, has a good estate, a wife and three or four children.
Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple (1652-54) 1888
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Peter Wiggin, the eldest, is a cruel and sadistic boy with grandiose but entirely plausible ideas of ruling the world.
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We have 2 boys, the eldest is circed, the youngest is not ..
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Rose, the eldest, is in the lead and she realizes something is terribly wrong before she sees what's the matter.
Lance Mannion: 2009
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This time there are 2 kids and the eldest is old enough to know that Daddy's gone.
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Anonymous said ... took my teens school clothes shopping, find it hard to believe my eldest is going off to college and my youngest is starting 11th grade. wow I am feeling old!
Max's Book Nalini Singh 2009
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My eldest is a No. 1 hunter and fisherman, the two younger ones like hunting but not as much as they like to fish (which is fine with me).
Daddy Deer Camp 2009
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Usually, the 2nd, 3rd and 5th sons are sprawled on our bed while watching cartoons on cable TV; the eldest is engrossed on highstreet 5 while the 4th son plays mafia wars on facebook.
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My eldest is a No. 1 hunter and fisherman, the two younger ones like hunting but not as much as they like to fish (which is fine with me).
Daddy Deer Camp 2009
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