have dibs on

1. Have a first claim on something, as in If you don't want it, I have dibs on the next available apartment. This term was originally schoolyard slang. [c. 1930]

Example Sentences

Mr. Forrest, Janet Maslin wrote in a review in The New York Times, “would be the surprise hit of the movie if Miss Midler didn’t herself have dibs on that position.”

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“I have dibs on Hudayfi,” he smiles.

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The man lets them have dibs on any horse they think they can find a home for.

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Morris and Dempsey both appear to have dibs on Valdez’s preferred center-forward spot.

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America has an acute poverty problem, and Washington doesn’t have dibs on softening its devastating blows — even as we spend more than $1 trillion a year combatting it.

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