A sale, gift, or delivery into the hand of another;
   especially, a sale, gift, delivery, or using which is the first of a
   series, and regarded as on omen for the rest; a first installment; an
   earnest; as the first money received for the sale of goods in the
   morning, the first money taken at a shop newly opened, the first
   present sent to a young woman on her wedding day, etc.