From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishfirst optionfirst optionFIRSTthe chance to buy or get something before anyone elsefirst option on They’ve agreed to give us the first option on their apartment. → option
Examples from the Corpus
first option• Local farmers will get first option to buy land when the military base closes.• The trouble with the first option, to simply end the war, was that Hanoi would not cooperate.• The first option is referred to as a world-wide contract, and the second is known as a territory-by-territory contract.• The first option is Shulamith Firestone's.• The first option is to extract water from subsurface permafrost and use that water directly in a nuclear or solar steam rocket.• The first option is to play the ball as it lies.• The first option was politically impractical, as close advisers like Georges Pompidou realized.• The first option was rejected, as in the past it has isolated the small group from the department.