first year

• first-year

first year (plural first years)

1. A first-year student.
   • 1969 March 13, Charlie Dickins, “[Editorial]”, in Woroni, volume 21, number 2, Canberra: A.N.U. Students’ Association; Canberra Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd., page 2:

     The obvious topic for this issue is the new first year students. What are they like? It would be easy to say that they seem to be a typical mob of apathetic new students. It would be more correct however, to say that they are simply a typical bunch of first years. They were given one of the best, if not the best, Orientation Weeks (thanks especially to the untiring efforts of Ronny-Boy Colman) that the A.N. U. has ever seen. The reaction of the first years was perhaps a little disappointing to the organisers but it was probably as good as could be expected.

   • 1979, Alan Bleasdale, No More Sitting on the Old School Bench, Huddersfield, W.Y.: Woodhouse Books, published 1983, →ISBN, page 30:

     Another thing you should know about is that the first years always stand with the teachers on the first day.

   • 1980, Rita Allcock, Wendy Bland, Dance in Education, London: Dance Books Ltd, →ISBN, page 8:

     Obviously it is pointless to expect from a group of first years the ability to pursue any great degree of abstraction in the preparation of a dance.

   • 1993, Linda Mather, chapter 23, in Blood of an Aries, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, published 1994, →ISBN, page 193:

     Jo left the school in the wake of a bunch of first years who made for the gate as if the building was on fire.

   • 2005, Jasmin Oliver, Gucci Girls: Cutting It, London: Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, →ISBN, page 7:

     The first years always fancy an older man, mate.

   • 2007, Helen Ryan, A Year in the Life of Rachel, [Drogheda]: Choice Publishing & Book Services Ltd, →ISBN, page 54:

     There is a rumour going round the school that Claire Miles is throwing a party at Easter to celebrate her pregnancy. […] Of course it might not be true about the party. The stupid first years are always getting things wrong.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see first,‎ year.
   • 1992, Christopher Brickell, editor, The Royal Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening, London: BCA by arrangement with Dorling Kindersley, published 1994, →ISBN, page 207, column 1:

     The use of sterilized compost when planting should minimize problems with weeds, at least for the first years.

   • 2012, Phyllis Koch-Sheras, Peter Sheras, Lifelong Love: 4 Steps to Creating and Maintaining an Extraordinary Relationship, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 142:

     For many couples, the first years seem to go the best.

   • 2014 May 28, Ian S. Port, “Second Acts”, in SF Weekly, volume 33, number 19, San Francisco, Calif.: SF Weekly, LP, →ISSN, page 38:

     First years are always hard for festivals.

• “first year”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “first-year”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.