- 1先發的、一軍的（球隊主力；相對於「二軍」second-string）
In team sport, the first-string players are the ones the coach sends out at the start of the game because they are the best. The rest wait on the bench and come on later, or not at all — they are second-string. So 'the first-string quarterback' is the main quarterback, the one you would name if someone asked who plays that position. This is American English, and it sits most naturally in American sports talk: football, basketball, baseball. British speakers would say 'the first team' or 'the starting eleven' for football. In American sport you will also hear 'the starters' or 'the starting lineup', and honestly those are more common in everyday speech now; 'first-string' has a slightly coach-ish, school-team flavour. The word travels outside sport too. 'Our first-string lawyers' means the top people, the ones you bring when it really matters. And 'second-string' has drifted of all — calling a person second-string is a mild put-down anywhere, meaning not quite good enough for the main job. Where does 'string' come from? A string here is a line or set of players grouped by ability — first string, second string, third string. Coaches literally list them in strings. It is the same everyday word as a string of beads: things lined up in order.
first-string 是體育用語，指球隊的主力，也就是教練在開賽時就派上場的最佳球員。其他人坐在板凳上，之後才上場，或根本不上，這些人是 second-string。所以「the first-string quarterback」就是主力四分衛。這是美式英文，在美式運球、橄欖球和棒球的談話裡最自然。
運動以外也有這個用法。「Our first-string lawyers」指的是最頂尖的人，是遇到真正重要的事才會找的人。而把人稱為 second-string，則是帶點貶意的說法，指不夠好、不是主要人選。
string 在這裡是依能力排成的一串球員，就像一串珠子排成一列。
組成first + string. In American sport, a 'string' is a group of players ranked together by ability — the first string is the top group, the second string the next. The picture is of players lined up in order, like beads on a string.
同家族的字
- second-stringthe next group down — the backups; used outside sport to mean not first choice
- stringthe same word: a line of things arranged in order
原始詞典資料1 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
first-stringadj
- 1
describing the members of a sports team who play regularly at the start of a match (rather than being substituted on)
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。