start

The beginning of an activity.

Adverb

  1. Completely, utterly.
    • Col.—The age has no sense—the people are start mad—as mad as a March mare. We should have fine times, indeed if our laws did'nt compel the poor people to protect the property of the rich. - 1828 August 22, “Militia...

Origin

Variant of stark.

Forms

more start most start sta't staht

Noun Entry 2

  1. The beginning of an activity.
    • The movie was entertaining from start to finish.
    • I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, / Straining upon the start. - 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
  2. A sudden involuntary movement.
    • He woke with a start.
    • Nature does nothing by starts and leaps, or in a hurry. - 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […],...
    • The sight of his scared face, his starts and pallors and sudden harkenings, unstrung me […] - 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, Olalla:
  3. The beginning point of a race, a board game, etc.
    • Captured pieces are returned to the start of the board.
  4. An appearance in a sports game, horserace, etc., from the beginning of the event.
    • Jones has been a substitute before, but made his first start for the team last Sunday.
    • Wilshere, who made his first start for England in the midweek friendly win over Denmark, raced into the penalty area and chose to cross rather than shoot - one of the very few poor selections he made in the match. -...
  5. A young plant germinated in a pot to be transplanted later.
    • You generally see nursery starts at garden centres in mid to late spring. Small annual plants are generally sold in four-packs or larger packs, with each cell holding a single young plant. - 2009, Liz Primeau, Steven A....
  6. An initial advantage over somebody else; a head start.
    • to get, or have, the start
    • The man has got two clear days' start and the chances are nine to one against catching him. - 1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados:
  7. A happening or proceeding.
    • “It's a rum start, old John Madingley's coming down to Tunnleton,” said Grafton, one evening in the smoking-room; […] - 1887, Hawley Smart, A False Start, volume 2, page 69:
  8. Alternative letter-case form of Start (“a typical button for video games, originally used to start a game, now also often to pause or choose an option”)

Origin

From Middle English stert, from the verb sterten (“to start, startle”). See below.

Forms

starts sta't staht

Derived

alpine start autostart black start blackstart bump-start by fits and starts by starts and leaps cold start deadstart Delaware start down start false start flying start for a start forestart fresh start a standing start start to finish the start headstart hill start jackrabbit start jumpstart kick start

Noun Entry 3

  1. A projection or protrusion; that which pokes out.
  2. The curved or inclined front and bottom of a water wheel bucket.
    • The fall of water is 6 feet, and the radius of the curve is 8 feet, from the centre of the water-wheel to the extreme point of the start. - 1845, Captain R.E. Crawley, Description of a Water-Course, Wharf, and...
  3. The arm, or level, of a gin, drawn around by a horse.
    • ... horses, a number of men who seemed to acquire strength as the necessity for it increased, applied their shoulders to the starts, or shafts of the gin, and worked it with extraordinary speed. By twelve o'clock,...
    • […] so that the horse may not expend his force in an oblique direction, but get a fair pull on the "starts." - 1854, Glynn, Rudimentary Treatise on the Construction of Cranes and Machinery for Raising Heavy Bodies, page...
    • With iron posts it is of course impossible to mortise in the starts and they were bolted between two cast-iron plates instead. The inclined stays were bolted to a[…] - 1973, Industrial Archaeology, page 254:

Origin

From Middle English stert, start (“tail, handle, projection”), from Old English steort (“tail”), from Proto-West Germanic *stert, from Proto-Germanic *stertaz (“tail”). Cognate with Scots start, stairt (“side post, shaft, upright post”), Dutch staart (“tail”), German Sterz (“tail, handle”), Danish stjert (“tail of a bird”), Faroese stertur (“tail”), Icelandic stertur (“short horse tail”), Norn skjårt (“tail”), sterti (“tail of a large fish”), stjårt (“tail of a large fish”), Norwegian stjert (“tail of a bird”), Swedish stjärt (“tail, arse”).

Forms

starts sta't staht

Derived

clubstart redstart

Noun Entry 4

  1. An instance of starting.

Origin

From Middle English sterten (“to leap up suddenly, rush out”), from Old English styrtan (“to leap up, start”), from Proto-West Germanic *sturtijan (“to startle, move, set in motion”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ter- (“to be stiff”). Cognate with Old Frisian stirta (“to fall down, tumble”), Middle Dutch sterten (“to rush, fall, collapse”) (Dutch storten), Old High German sturzen (“to hurl, plunge, turn upside down”) (German stürzen), Old High German sterzan (“to be stiff, protrude”). More at stare.

Forms

starts sta't staht

Related

get started jump-start start off start on start out start up the terms derived from starting

Derived

hard start

Verb

  1. To begin, commence, initiate.
    • to start a stream of water; to start a rumour; to start a business
    • I was some years ago engaged in conversation with a fashionable French Abbe, upon a subject which the people of that kingdom love to start in discourse. - April 2, 1716, Joseph Addison, Freeholder No. 30
    • In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of...

    1. To set in motion.

    2. To begin.

      • The President fired the gun to start the footrace.
      • The rain started at 9:00.
      • Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so...

    3. To ready the operation of a vehicle or machine.

      • to start the engine

    4. To put or raise (a question, an objection); to put forward (a subject for discussion).

    5. To bring onto being or into view; to originate; to invent.

      • Sensual men agree in the pursuit of every pleasure they can start. - 1674, William Temple, letter to The Countess of Essex:
  2. To have its origin (at), begin.
    • The speed limit is 50 km/h, starting at the edge of town.
    • The blue line starts one foot away from the wall.
  3. To move suddenly, from a previous state of rest; to startle.
    • But if he start, It is the flesh of a corrupted heart. - c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:...
    • I could a Tale vnfold, vvhoſe lighteſt vvord VVould harrovv vp thy ſoule, freeze thy young blood, Make thy tvvo eyes like Starres, ſtart from their Spheres, Thy knotty and combined locks to part, And each particular...
    • I start as from some dreadful dream. - 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page number):

    Synonyms: jump

    1. (intransitive) To jerk, jump up, flinch, or draw back in surprise.

    2. (intransitive) To awaken suddenly.

      • I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; [...] - 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter IV, in Frankenstein;...

    3. (transitive) To disturb and set in motion; to alarm; to rouse; to cause to flee.

      • The hounds started a fox.
      • Upon malicious bravery dost thou come To start my quiet? - c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies...

    4. (ergative, of an object) To come loose, to break free of a firmly set position; to displace or loosen; to dislocate.

      • the storm started the bolts in the vessel
      • One, by a fall in wrestling, started the end of the clavicle from the sternon. - 1676, Richard Wiseman, Severall Chirurgicall Treatises, London: […] E. Flesher and J. Macock, for R[ichard] Royston […], and B[enjamin]...
      • [...] we could, with the greateſt eaſe, as well as clearneſs, ſee all objects, (ourſelves unſeen) only by applying our eyes cloſe to the crevice, where the moulding of a pannel had warp'd, or ſtarted a little on the...
  4. To put into play.
    • The charge against Zagallo then is not so much that he started Ronaldo, but that when it should surely have been clear that the player was in no fit state to take part he kept him on. - 2010, Brian Glanville, The Story...
    • “Look at Portu,” Michel insisted, “he scores goals and I never start him. He says: ‘You’re sinking me, but OK, I’ll just go out and score again.’” - 2024 May 6, Sid Lowe, “Portu’s brilliant burst seals Girona’s top-four...
  5. To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from.
    • to start a water cask
  6. To begin one's menstrual cycle.
    • Have you started yet?

Forms

starts starting started sta't staht

Synonyms

begin

Antonyms

stop end cease finish conclude complete

Derived

astart autostart bump-start deadstart get in the boat and start rowing kick start misstart never start a land war in Asia outstart push-start restart self-starting startable start a family start afresh start a fresh hare start a hare start a hare running start and park start back start back in start back on starter start from where you are