pride of place

Noun

pride of place (uncountable)

1. The highest-ranking or first position; place of honor.
   • On Tuesday last / A falcon towering in her pride of place / Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
   • For the Imhoffs, moreover, as for most northern collectors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Dürer holds pride of place, being represented by a complete collection of his prints and probably the largest group of his drawings gathered anywhere.1993, Joseph Leo Koerner, The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art, page 46
2. Honor; esteem.
   • Europe at the start of the 1990s was abuzz with organizational concepts and visions, and among these none had as much pride of place as the notion of "confederation."1991, David G. Haglund, Alliance within the alliance?, page 67
   • The participant shares pride of place with the events themselves in our minds as we read Virgil's text.1998, Michael C. J. Putnam, Virgil's Epic Designs: Ekphrasis in the Aeneid, page 34
3. Pride concerning a place, as one's home town or residence.
   • The Yankee has much pride of place, believing himself the citizen of no mean city. In the heart of the Commonwealth this pride is conspicuous, and Mr. Hoar was proud of the city and county of Worcester.1908, Francis Cabot Lowell with Henry Pickering Walcott and Ezra Ripley Thayer, Sons of the Puritans: a group of brief biographies, page 3
   • It's smaller than I'd expected, and without much pride of place.2012, Benjamin Taylor, Naples Declared: A Walk Around the Bay