start

plural starts · alternative pronunciation spelling sta't · alternative pronunciation spelling staht

1. The beginning of an activity.

   The movie was entertaining from start to finish.

   1 more example

   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 Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]

2. A sudden involuntary movement.

   He woke with a start.

   2 more examples

   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: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC

   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.

   1 more example

   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.

   2011 February 12, Ian Hughes, “Arsenal 2 - 0 Wolverhampton”, in BBC

5. agricultureA 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. Frowine, Gardening Basics For Canadians For Dummies

6. An initial advantage over somebody else; a head start.

   to get, or have, the start

   1 more example

   The man has got two clear days' start and the chances are nine to one against catching him.

   1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

7. UKarchaicslangA 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”)

present singular third person starts · participle present starting · participle past started · past started · alternative pronunciation spelling sta't · alternative pronunciation spelling staht

1. To begin, commence, initiate.
   1. ergativeTo set in motion.

      to start a stream of water; to start a rumour; to start a business

      2 more examples

      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 time.

      1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   2. ergativeTo begin.

      The rain started at 9:00.

      3 more examples

      The President fired the gun to start the footrace.

      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 is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.

      2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30

      Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ […].” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.

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

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

      to start the engine

   4. ergativeTo put or raise (a question, an objection); to put forward (a subject for discussion).
   5. ergativeTo 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. intransitiveTo have its origin (at), begin.

   The blue line starts one foot away from the wall.

   1 more example

   The speed limit is 50 km/h, starting at the edge of town.

3. To move suddenly, from a previous state of rest; to startle.
   1. intransitiveTo jerk, jump up, flinch, or draw back in surprise.

      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)

      5 more examples

      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: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]

      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 haire to ſtand an end, Like Quilles vpon the fretfull Porpentine: […]

      c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v], page 257, column 2

      Keep your soul to the work when it is ready to start aside.

      1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published 1726, →OCLC

      [...] The tempest's mocking elf Points to the shipman thus the unseen shelf He strikes on, only when the timbers start.

      1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXXI

      Suddenly his eye fell on the screen that he had placed in front of the portrait, and he started.

      1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter VIII, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC, page 139

      Synonyms: jump

   2. intransitiveTo 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; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 100

   3. transitiveTo disturb and set in motion; to alarm; to rouse; to cause to flee.

      The hounds started a fox.

      1 more example

      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 […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   4. ergativeTo come loose, to break free of a firmly set position; to displace or loosen; to dislocate.

      the storm started the bolts in the vessel

      2 more examples

      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] Took, […], →OCLC

      [...] 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 other ſide.

      Fanny Hill

      1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC, page 76

4. transitivehobbiesTo put into play.

   “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 fairytale in the perfect way”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   1 more example

   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 of the World Cup: The Essential Companion to South Africa 2010, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 361

5. transitivenauticalTo pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from.

   to start a water cask

6. euphemisticintransitiveTo begin one's menstrual cycle.

   Have you started yet?

7. intransitiveobsoletepossiblyTo begin a journey; to set forth.

   I GET letters from you far too seldom considering that you can much more easily find people starting for Rome than I to Athens: considering, too, that you are more certain of my being at Rome than I of your being at Athens.

   1920, Cicero, translated by Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh, The Letters of Cicero: The Whole Extant Correspondence in Chronological Order, volume 1 (hardcover), London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., page 5

plural starts · alternative pronunciation spelling sta't · alternative pronunciation spelling staht

1. An instance of starting.

plural starts · alternative pronunciation spelling sta't · alternative pronunciation spelling staht

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 Water-Wheel, erected at Waltham Abbey, Essex […]

3. The arm, or level, of a gin, drawn around by a horse.

   […] 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 13

   2 more examples

   ... 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, thirty-two[…]

   1834, William Andrus Alcott, Samuel Griswold Goodrich, Parley's Magazine, page 364

   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

comparative more start · superlative most start · alternative pronunciation spelling sta't · alternative pronunciation spelling staht

1. archaicdialectalCompletely, 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 System”, in The New England Farmer, volume VII, Boston, M.A.: John B. Russell, published 1829, page 40, column 1

plural Starts · alternative start

1. video gamesA typical button for video games, originally used to start a game, now also often to pause or choose an option.

plural Starts · alternative start

1. A surname from Old English.

alternative start

1. UKobsoleteslangThe city of London, England.

   1 more example

   It is true that certain kinds of documents, especially sham hawkers’ licenses, may be had in the provinces, at prices suited to the importance of their contents, or to the probable gains of their circulation; but all the ‘regular bang-up fakes’ are manufactured in the ‘Start’ (metropolis), and sent into the country to order, carefully packed up, and free from observation.

   1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861

1. abbreviationacronymuncountablemedicineAcronym of simple triage and rapid treatment.
2. alternativeuncountableAlternative form of Start (“a typical button for video games, originally used to start a game, now also often to pause or choose an option”)

1. abbreviationacronymlawAcronym of Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.