commence

present singular third person commences · participle present commencing · participle past commenced · past commenced

1. intransitiveTo begin, start.

   Here the anthem doth commence:

   1601, William Shakespeare, The Phoenix and the Turtle

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   His heaven commences ere the world be past!

   1770, Oliver Goldsmith, “The Deserted Village”, in The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, London: W. Griffin, published 1775, page 164

   He commenced dressing at top by donning his beaver hat, a very tall one, by the by, and then—still minus his trowsers—he hunted up his boots.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 4, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

   Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

2. transitiveTo begin, start.

   The speeches commenced three days of workshops, seminars, and cultural activities.

   1976 December 11, Thom Willenbecher, quoting Jean O'Leary, “Women's Caucus Quits Gay Academic Union”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 24, page 1

3. AppalachiaintransitiveTo begin or start.

   At dawn we'll commence to drive.

4. transitiveTo begin to be, or to act as.

   When we are wearied of the trouble of prosecuting crimes at the bar, we commence judges ourselves […]

   1825, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Aids to Reflection in the Formation of a Manly Character, London: Taylor & Hessey, Prudential Aphorisms, Aphorism 15, page 48

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   […] he furnish’d me with a Gun, Cartouch-box, and Powder-horn, &c. and thus accouter’d I commenc’d Soldier.

   1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, page 126

5. UKdatedintransitiveTo take a degree at a university.

   […] was admitted a minor fellow of his college 4 Oct. 1591, a major fellow 11 March 1591-2, and commenced M.A. in 1592.

   1861, George John Gray, Athenae Cantabrigienses: 1586-1609, page 272

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   […] I question whether the Formality of Commencing was used in that Age: inclining rather to the negative, that such Distinction of Graduates was then unknown […]

   1655, Thomas Fuller, “The Seventh Century”, in The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI), page 75