self-starter

plural self-starters

1. A person who shows initiative and resourcefulness.

   1 more example

   Purchasing a snowplow transforms Homer into a new man. Mr. Burns' laziest employee suddenly becomes an ambitious self-starter who buys ad time on local television at 3:17 A.M^([sic]) (prime viewing hours, Homer gingerly volunteers, for everyone from alcoholics to the unemployable to garden-variety angry loners) and makes a homemade commercial costarring his family.

   2012 June 3, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Mr. Plow” (season 4, episode 9; originally aired 11/19/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), archived from the original on 26 Oct 2012

2. A mechanism (usually one operated by electricity, compressed air, a spring, or an explosive gas), attached to an internal-combustion engine, as on an automobile, and used as a means of starting the engine without cranking it by hand.

   The grey Bentley convertible, the 1933 4½-litre with the Amherst-Villiers supercharger, had been brought round a few minutes earlier from the garage where he kept it and the engine had kicked directly he pressed the self-starter.

   1954, Ian Fleming, “Interview with M”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 11

   Synonyms: starter

3. An engine so equipped, or the vehicle that it powers.

   His ancient Cadillac was one of the first self-starters.