first refusal

British  

noun

1. the chance of buying a house, merchandise, etc, before the offer is made to other potential buyers

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Example Sentences

Swinney announced the first refusal policy ahead of a campaign visit to Inverness, saying it could help those struggling to get on the property ladder.

From BBC • Apr. 10, 2026

SpaceX, like many other private firms, typically holds the right of first refusal.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 18, 2026

“They offered no advance. The clause that I really should have taken out was the right of first refusal, which boxed me in,” she explained.

From Slate • Nov. 3, 2025

OpenAI has also committed to purchasing $250 billion in Azure cloud services from the tech giant, though Microsoft no longer holds first refusal rights as OpenAI's compute provider.

From Barron's • Oct. 28, 2025

So this seemed to me to be quite enough to explain Uldra's first refusal, and though I believe that Relf had been on the point of telling me more, he forbore, and let this suffice.

From King Olaf's Kinsman A Story of the Last Saxon Struggle against the Danes in the Days of Ironside and Cnut by Whistler, Charles W. (Charles Watts)