Word.ws English Dictionary

first dibs

first dibs noun: the first choice, a preference (on something).

Noun

first dibs (uncountable)

  1. The first choice, a preference (on something).
    • The boss insisted on having first dibs on the best parking space.

Origin of first dibs

From dibs (“the right to use something before anyone else”); see further etymology there.

Questions about first dibs

What does first dibs mean?
First dibs means the first choice, a preference (on something).
What part of speech is first dibs?
First dibs is a noun.

Words near first dibs in the dictionary

  1. first day cover
  2. first day covers
  3. first death
  4. first declension
  5. first declensions
  6. first dibs
  7. first digit
  8. first digits
  9. first division
  10. first divisions
  11. First Dog

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: first dibs (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “first dibs.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/first_dibs. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.