pride of place

pride of place (uncountable)

1. The highest-ranking or first position; position of honor.
   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iv]:

     On Tuesday last / A falcon towering in her pride of place / Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.

   • 1993, Joseph Leo Koerner, The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art, page 46

     For the Imhoffs, moreover, as for most northern collectors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Dürer holds pride of place, being represented by a complete collection of his prints and probably the largest group of his drawings gathered anywhere.

   • 2001, Lawrence Buell, Writing for an Endangered World, page 60

     Agnew's triadic postulate is not in itself very controversial, but there have been sharp disagreements over which ingredient(s) of place should be given pride of place.

2. Honor; esteem.
   • 1991, David G. Haglund, Alliance within the alliance?, page 67:

     Europe at the start of the 1990s was abuzz with organizational concepts and visions, and among these none had as much pride of place as the notion of "confederation."

   • 1998, Michael C. J. Putnam, Virgil's Epic Designs: Ekphrasis in the Aeneid, page 34:

     The participant shares pride of place with the events themselves in our minds as we read Virgil's text.

3. Pride concerning a place, as one's home town or residence.
   • 1908, Francis Cabot Lowell; Henry Pickering Walcott, Ezra Ripley Thayer, Sons of the Puritans: a group of brief biographies, page 3:

     The Yankee has much pride of place, believing himself the citizen of no mean city. In the heart of the Commonwealth this pride is conspicuous, and Mr. Hoar was proud of the city and county of Worcester.

   • 2012, Benjamin Taylor, Naples Declared: A Walk Around the Bay:

     It's smaller than I'd expected, and without much pride of place.