first papers

American  

plural noun

Informal.

1. an official declaration of intention filed by a resident alien desiring to become a U.S. citizen: not required by law after 1952.

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Etymology

Origin of first papers

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

first papers

Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economist, has known Summers since graduate school and coauthored one of the first papers Summers published in an academic journal.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025

At the start of the pandemic, Shane Crotty, of the La Jolla Institute of Immunology, published some of the first papers looking at the immune response to COVID.

From Slate ● Jan. 31, 2023

Her first papers suggesting ultrasound’s potential for offering an effective, less invasive form of fetal screening — available to women of any age — were published in 1985.

From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2022

Ankita Patnaik, an economist at Mathematica Policy Research in Washington DC, authored one of the first papers studying QPIP.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 15, 2018

There was no word from Bonaparte among the first papers; and it was scarcely possible that there should be in the other packet; yet he could not keep his eye from it.

From The Hour and the Man, An Historical Romance by Martineau, Harriet