Green’s Dictionary of Slang

initial actions, plans etc, usu. in phr. for starters.

1951		Réalités CXXXI-III 49/4: The little Japanese woman who snatched up $700 worth of scarves, just for starters.
1957		Billboard 16 Mar. 28: Just for starters, give the full "Kyrie" a hearing.
1966		Black World May 60: For starters, this seems certain: the Negro fringe player has been badly hurt.
1972		New York mag. 27 Nov.82: So at least for starters we are not going to discuss how Britain's talented young Michael Winner has not survived a trans-Atlantic transplant.
1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 132: My office would be staked out for starters.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 51: About five hundred other things he never rated high on the clapometer either only they were the starters.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] Fuck-all chance of me getting bail for starters.
2003		C. Stella Charlie Opera 62: ‘What do you need from me?’ ‘Names, for starters’.
2008		R. Price Lush Life 339: For starters? Give me my seventh day recanvass .
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 66: ‘What size?’ ‘Small-small for starters, hey, lad?’.
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 55: ‘I think that will do just fine for starters, won’t it, Sylvia dear?’.