> as lemmas

a1470 T. Malory Morte Darthur (Winch. Coll. 13) (1990) I. 359 He is my fyrste love, and he shall be the laste.

1490 W. Caxton tr. Boke yf Eneydos xi. sig. Cviii^v After the deth dolourouse & cursid of my somtyme husbonde Sychee. whiche bare awaye my firste loue wyth hym whan he was leyde vnder therthe.

1526 Bible (Tyndale) Rev. ii. 4 Neverthelesse I have sumwhat agaynst the, for thou haste lefte thy fyrst love [1384 Wycliffite, E.V. first charite].

1569 T. Underdowne tr. Heliodorus Æthiop. Hist. iii. f. 46^v (margin) Theagenes pained the more because he was neuer in Loue before. Wherby may be gathered that the firste Loue pincheth.

1606 N. Breton Poste with Packet Madde Lett. (new ed.) II. sig. G3 A young man to his first Loue. Sweete Loue, since first I sawe you, I haue seene none like you.

1670 N. Ranew Solitude Improved by Divine Medit. i. xxii. 87 That his first works done again, might be a rekindler of his first Love.

1706 G. Pooley Serm. Preach'd before Lord Mayor 10 Christians fallen from their First Love.

1741 S. Richardson Pamela III. xiv. 63 It was a first Love on both Sides; and so he could not appear to her as a practised Deceiver.

1823 C. Lamb Mrs. Battle's Opinions on Whist in Elia 75 Quadrille, she has often told me, was her first love; but whist had engaged her maturer esteem.

1825 H. Wilson Mem. II. 91 First love is all powerful in the head and heart of such an ardent character as Worcester's.

1861 R. C. Trench Comm. Epist. 7 Churches Asia 77 The suggestion that this leaving of the first love can refer to the abating of any other love.

1883 R. Broughton Belinda I. i. i. 46 Rivers looks at her; looks at her as a wholesome minded and bodied boy of twenty-two does look at his first love.

1938 Amer. Home Oct. 28/3 Tole was my first love, and I have about twenty pieces of this fascinating ware.

1954 E. McLeod tr. Colette Vagabond ii. viii. 129 You couldn't mistake it; it was love indeed, first love. That was what it was and never again will be.

1961 J. R. Rice Count your Blessings 7 I wonder if some reader reads this and finds his heart cold, unresponsive? Then you have lost your first love.

1971 Radio Times 27 May 5/1 Despite a recent ITV series his first love remains radio.

2011 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 13 Jan. 25/1 With his fellow students Benois and Nouvel, his cousin and his first love Dima Filosofov, and their friend Léon Bakst.