front-rank
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of front-rank
First recorded in 1590–1600
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mandelson had his front-rank political career resurrected three times subsequently: as an EU commissioner; as business secretary and de facto deputy prime minister to Gordon Brown in 2009, and as ambassador to Washington in 2025.
From BBC • Feb. 2, 2026
She had to be young so you could have lots of children, she had to be Protestant, she had to be a front-rank aristocrat, and she had to be a virgin.
From Salon • Sep. 6, 2023
Had Hitler delayed by a few years, Roberts suggests, Churchill would surely have been away from front-rank politics too long to “make himself the one indispensable figure.”
From New York Times • Nov. 13, 2018
“The front-rank Republican candidates are going to have to have some carbon mitigation proposal at some point,” Bledsoe said.
From Scientific American • Aug. 7, 2015
The front-rank man on the right stands fast, the rear rank man on the right closes to 40 inches.
From Manual of Military Training Second, Revised Edition by Moss, James A. (James Alfred)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
