First-rate

Full definition of first-rate

Noun

1. (military, nautical, historical) A ship of the line in the British navy that had over 100 guns on three gun decks

Adjective

adjective

1. (military, nautical, historical) Describing a ship of the line in the British navy that had over 100 guns on three gundecks.
2. (by extension) Exceptionally good.
• Matthew ArnoldOur only first-rate body of contemporary poetry is the German.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 1, He used to drop into my chambers once in a while to smoke, and was first-rate company. When I gave a dinner there was generally a cover laid for him. I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me.