first degreen.adj.

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xvii. lxix. 959 Fvmus terre is an herbe hoot and druye in þe ferste degre [L. in primo gradu].

c1460 Tree & 12 Frutes (McClean) (1960) 135 The first degree of sobirnes is for to absteyne from ouermoche mete and drinke.

1534 W. Marshall tr. Erasmus Playne & Godly Expos. Commune Crede f. 50 This was the fyrste degre or step to the knowledge of god.

1638 F. Junius Painting of Ancients i. 17 The first degree is, that wee desire knowledge: the second, that we delight in this desire.

1707 J. Oldfield Ess. Improvem. Reason iii. xiii. 298 The two latter sorts of Inference may be manifold, even in the first Degree or Step of Illation, much more in the farther Process.

1804 W. Cruise Digest Laws Eng. Real Prop. III. 368 The first degree of title is the bare possession, or actual occupation of the estate, without any apparent right..to hold and continue such possession.

1909 N.Y. Times 30 June 1/3 It had nothing whatever to do with the income tax, but served the purpose of constituting an amendment in the first degree.

2008 P. Montgomery Plant Spirit Healing xiii. 190 In this first degree of depression when the inner flame is burning low, there is a particular vulnerability that arises.

1530 W. Tyndale Pract. Prelates sig. Eviii^v When he taketh first degre he is sworne that he shall hold none opynion condemned by the church.

1655 Laws & Customs of Harvard College in Publ. Colonial Soc. Mass. (1935) XXXI. (Harvard Univ.) 8 Haveing staid three yeares after his first degree, and herein..twice declaymed.., shall bee Capable of his second degree, viz to be Master of Arts.

1772 J. Napleton Considerations Resid. Degrees of Univ. Oxf. 16 The statutable residence for the First Degree cannot with any propriety be abated.

1852 C. A. Bristed Five Years Eng. University (ed. 2) 348 The M.A. incepts in about three years and two months from the time of taking his first degree.

1962 Empire Forestry Rev. 41 64 He [sc. the average United Kingdom graduate] will not expect to be exposed to a considerable amount of work in the basic sciences which he will consider were adequately treated during his first degree.

1990 New Scientist 28 July 71 (advt.) You will need at least a good first degree in nutritional science.

2005 J. J. Wellington et al. Succeeding with your Doctorate 11 I decided to do a doctorate because I had recently completed my first degree and felt..confident that I could achieve more.

1642 J. Steer tr. Fabricius Exper. Chyrurg. ii. 4 For if the thing which burneth doth not long stick unto the body, or be but light as straw, flax, hemp, or any kind of light or dry wood, or any thing which quickly falleth off, they are but only pustels raised, and this is the first degree or particular [L. primus gradus seu species].

1743 tr. L. Heister Gen. Syst. Surg. I. xv. 221 In the slightest or first Degree [L. primi gradus] of a Burn, the Intention is to disperse it by the Remedies which we advised for a Phlegmon.

1807 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 18 414 It is recorded that a violent head-ache in one person, and a pain in the limbs in another person, were removed by the parts affected being accidentally burnt, and that only in the first degree of burns.

1843 Lancet 29 July 628/2 Chloride of sodium, says Lisfranc, will subdue the inflammatory symptoms in burns of the first degree (that is, confined to simple rubefaction and elevation of the surface) in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours.

1890 Columbus Med. Jrnl. 8 531 In burns or scalds of the first degree causing only a superficial skin irritation or erythema, little treatment is usually required except to relieve the pain and exclude the air.

1915 Med. Rec. 25 Sept. 545/1 He found that in frostbite of the first degree in which there was not much swelling one application of the x-rays was sufficient.

1983 Clinics Dermatol. 1 9/1 The appearances to which it [sc. pemphigus foliaceus] gives rise are..often like those of a burn of the first degree.

1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Transcendental curves..are such Curves, as when their Nature or Property comes to be express'd by an Equation, one of the variable or flowing Quantities there, denotes a Curve or crooked Line; and when Such Curve Line is a Geometrick one, or one of the first Degree or Kind, then the Transcendental curve is said to be of the Second Degree or Kind, &c.

1772 J. Fenn Instr. Drawing School Dublin-Soc. II. ii. 5 These Kinds of Equations are called Equations of the first Degree, such are 2x − 10 = 56.., &c. and the Problems which lead to those Equations, are called Problems of the first degree.

1841 C. Davies Elem. Analyt. Geom. (ed. 2) ix. 303 Every equation of the first degree between two variables, represents a straight line.

1894 J. Ray New Elem. Algebra (rev ed.) iv. 91 2x + b = 9, and ax + b = c, are simple equations, or equations of the first degree.

1901 J. H. Boyd College Algebra iii. iv. 330 Every inequality of the first degree in one unknown quantity x can be written in the form ax > b.

1916 Math. Gaz. 8 254 We might quite naturally say that the rate increases continuously in a curve of the first degree.

1969 Math. Mag. 42 187 Are there transformations which preserve the essential characters of the collineation..but without having the form of polynomials of the first degree?

2012 R. W. Balluffi Introd. Elasticity Theory for Crystal Defects 125 Consider the relatively simple case where the transformation strain is a polynomial of the first degree.

1794 Oracle & Public Advertiser 8 Aug. 2/2 Legislature of Pennsylvania... Murder in the first degree is defined to be, a killing..with..wilful, deliberate, premeditated intention.

1794 Act Better preventing Crimes in Pennsylvania Statutes-at-Large 15 174 No crime whatsoever, hereafter committed (except murder in the first degree) shall be punished with death in the state of Pennsylvania.

1839 N.Y. Spectator 15 Jan. 2/5 Barney Scanlan was put upon his trial for manslaughter in the first degree, in causing the death of his wife by violence.

1889 J. H. Merrill Amer. & Eng. Encycl. Law IX. 556/1 Wilful Murder with malice and premeditation, in a cool state of blood, is murder in the first degree.

1929 C. E. Martin Politics of Peace v. 83 It is pure nonsense to contend that murder in the first degree should have the same penalty as the violation of a simple police regulation.

1974 Jrnl. Criminal Law & Criminol. 65 418/1 Generally only one type of homicide—murder in the first degree—is punishable by death, with murder in the second degree and voluntary manslaughter usually being punished by imprisonment.

2010 D. C. Brody & J. R. Acker Criminal Law (ed. 2) vii. 277 The defendant was..charged with three counts involving forcible compulsion—rape in the first degree, sodomy in the first degree and sexual abuse in the first degree.

1851 Statutes Gen. Nature Legislative Assembly Oregon 80/1 Crimes and Misdemeanors... Punishment by death, or imprisonment in the Penitentiary...1. Murder, first degree.

1895 Newark (Ohio) Daily Advocate 25 Mar. 1/3 John Molnar, a Cleveland first-degree murderer, has been received at the prison annex.

1925 N.Y. Times 5 Dec. 21/8 Imprisonment for life of first degree burglars and robbers was recommended by the Kings County Grand Jury.

1978 Globe & Mail (Canada) (Nexis) 19 June [He] did act under ‘extreme emotional disturbance’—a mitigation that reduced the charge from second-degree murder to first-degree manslaughter.

1994 W. Farrell Myth Male Power (rev. ed.) xii. 189 Premeditated murder, normally called first-degree murder (the worst kind).

2002 R. S. Ogle & S. Jacobs Self-Defense & Battered Women who Kill 24 The court further instructed the jurors that if they found each element of first-degree murder, they should proceed to determine if any mitigating factor was present to reduce the offense to second-degree murder.

1898 J. H. Tanner & J. Allen Elem. Course Analytic Geom. i. iii. 49 The proof that the locus of any first-degree equation, in two variables, is a straight line is given in Chap. V.

1925 Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 27 265 The complex of first degree curves..has been thoroughly investigated.

1976 Two-Year College Math. Jrnl. 7 42 Skeptics of the six-step method were finally convinced of its value when we began solving first degree inequalities.

1989 Weed Sci. 37 84 (caption) Second-degree curves were fitted to soybean biomass data. First-degree curves were fitted to pigweed biomass data.

2007 Educ. Stud. Math. 66 94 During their previous year of study, the students had been taught how to solve simple first degree equations.

1900 Jrnl. Electro-therapeutics 18 266 One-half of face had the appearance of having been long exposed to sun and wind; not the acute first-degree burn from sun that we so commonly see, but rather the condition from many exposures.

1916 Boys' Life Feb. 12/2 For such a burn, a ‘first degree burn’ or scald, an application of sterile vaseline..covered with a little sterile gauze or soft muslin and snugly bandaged in place, is generally satisfactory.

1972 B. F. Miller & C. B. Keane Encycl. & Dict. Med. & Nursing 155/1 First-degree burns damage the epidermis; second-degree burns damage both epidermis and dermis.

2002 Child Abuse & Neglect 37 485 Upon arrival at the hospital, he was noted to be in pain and had first-degree chemical burns to his posterior thighs, lower legs, and buttocks.

1904 Texas Rep. 97 100 The words ‘first degree’ indicate the degree of relationship in which all the heirs must stand with respect to the decedent in order to invoke the said rule.

1913 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 23 Apr. 22/3 A teacher may absent herself from her class for three days on account of the death of a first degree relative.

1976 Irish Times 12 May 13/5 Last month 60 of them [sc. prisoners] had been denied visits by uncles, aunts, in-laws and first-degree relations.

1989 J. G. Gunderson & M. C. Zanarini in A. Tasman et al. Rev. Psychiatry VIII. ii. 33 Reports vary about whether to limit or subdivide the relatives into those which are first degree, second degree, or third degree.

1989 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 5 Sept. c3 A more drastic step to prevent development of the cancer among women who have two or more first-degree blood relatives (a mother, daughter or sister) with the disease.

2009 N. Soggie Professional Handbk. Mood & Anxiety Disorders 92 Statistically the likelihood of having a mood disorder is much greater if you have first-degree relatives with mood disorder.