start

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /stɑːt/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (General American) enPR: stärt, IPA^(key): /stɑɹt/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)t

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

start (plural starts)

1. The beginning of an activity.

   The movie was entertaining from start to finish.

   • Shakespeare

     I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, / Straining upon the start.

2. A sudden involuntary movement.

   He woke with a start.

   • L'Estrange

     Nature does nothing by starts and leaps, or in a hurry.

   • Robert Louis Stevenson, Olalla

     The sight of his scared face, his starts and pallors and sudden harkenings, unstrung me […]

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 from the beginning of the match.

   Jones has been a substitute before, but made his first start for the team last Sunday.

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

     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. (horticulture) A young plant germinated in a pot to be transplanted later.
   • 2009, Liz Primeau, ‎Steven A. Frowine, Gardening Basics For Canadians For Dummies

     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.

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

   to get, or have, the start

• by fits and starts
• by starts and leaps

From Middle English sterten (“to leap up suddenly, rush out”), from Old English styrtan (“to leap up, start”), from Proto-Germanic *sturtijaną (“to startle, move, set in motion”), causative of *stirtaną (“to leap, tumble”), from Proto-Indo-European *stere-, *strē- (“to be strong, steady, rigid, fixed”). 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.

start (third-person singular simple present starts, present participle starting, simple past and past participle started)

1. (transitive) To begin, commence, initiate.
   1. To set in motion.

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

      • (Can we date this quote?) Joseph Addison

        I was engaged in conversation upon a subject which the people love to start in discourse.

      • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

        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.

   2. To begin.
      • 2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30:

        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.

   3. To initiate 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.
      • (Can we date this quote?) Sir William Temple

        Sensual men agree in the pursuit of every pleasure they can start.

2. (intransitive) To begin an activity.

   The rain started at 9:00.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     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.

3. (intransitive) 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.

4. To startle or be startled; to move or be moved suddenly.
   1. (intransitive) To jerk suddenly in surprise.
      • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

        But if he start, / It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.

      • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

        I start as from some dreadful dream.

      • (Can we date this quote?) Isaac Watts

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

      • 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, XXXI:

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

   2. (intransitive) To awaken suddenly.
      • (Can we date this quote?) Mary Shelley

        I started from my sleep with horror […]

   3. (transitive) To disturb and cause to move suddenly; to startle; to alarm; to rouse; to cause to flee or fly.

      The hounds started a fox.

      • c. 1603, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act I, Scene i:

        […] Upon malicious bravery dost thou come / To start my quiet?

   4. (transitive) To move suddenly from its place or position; to displace or loosen; to dislocate.

      to start a bone;   the storm started the bolts in the vessel

      • Wiseman

        One, by a fall in wrestling, started the end of the clavicle from the sternum.

5. (intransitive) To break away, to come loose.
   • 1749, John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Penguin 1985 reprint), page 66:

     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 panel had warped or started a little on the other side.

6. (transitive, sports) To put into play.
   • 2010, Brian Glanville, The Story of the World Cup: The Essential Companion to South Africa 2010, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 361:

     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.

7. (transitive, nautical) To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from.

   to start a water cask

8. (intransitive, euphemistic) To start one's periods (menstruation).

   Have you started yet?

• In uses 1.1 and 1.2 this is a catenative verb that takes the infinitive (to) or the gerund (-ing) form. There is no change in meaning.
• For more information, see Appendix:English catenative verbs

• stop
• end

• astart
• start-up
• starter

start (plural starts)

1. A tail, or anything projecting like a tail.
2. A handle, especially that of a plough.
3. The curved or inclined front and bottom of a water wheel bucket.
4. The arm, or level, of a gin, drawn around by a horse.

• Strat, Tarts, strat, tarts

start

1. firm, strong
2. difficult

• startijenn

• Herve Ar Bihan, Colloquial Breton, pages 16 and 268: define "start" as "hard, difficult, firm"

Borrowed from English start.

start

1. start

• Mirjejev, V. A.; Usejinov, S. M. (2002) Ukrajinsʹko-krymsʹkotatarsʹkyj slovnyk [Ukrainian – Crimean Tatar Dictionary]‎, Simferopol: Dolya, →ISBN

Borrowed from English start.

start m

1. start (beginning point of a race)

• připravit se, pozor, start

• cíl m

• start in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• start in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

Borrowed from English start.

start c (singular definite starten, plural indefinite starter)

1. start

start

1. imperative of starte

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑrt

Borrowed from English start.

start m (plural starts, diminutive startje n)

1. start

• startbaan
• starten
• startpunt

See the etymology of the main entry.

start

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of starten
2. imperative of starten

start

1. Imperative singular of starten.

Borrowed from English start.

start m (definite singular starten, indefinite plural starter, definite plural startene)

1. a start

   fra start til mål ― from start to finish

• omstart
• startsted

start

1. imperative of starte

• “start” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Borrowed from English start.

• IPA^(key): /stɑrt/

start m (definite singular starten, indefinite plural startar, definite plural startane)

1. a start (beginning)

start

1. imperative of starta

• omstart

• “start” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from English start.

• IPA^(key): /start/

start m inan

1. (sports) start (the beginning of a race)
2. (aviation) takeoff

   Z niecierpliwością czekałam na start samolotu do Paryża.

   I was impatiently waiting for the plane to Paris to take off. (=for its take-off)

3. participation

   Większość kibiców ucieszyła się, że zdecydował się on na start w zawodach.

   Most fans were happy to hear that he had decided to take part in the competition.

• startować — verb to start
• startowy — adjective starting, take-off
• falstart (m) — noun false start

• start in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from English start.

• audio

  (file)

start c

1. a start; a beginning (of a race)
2. the starting (of an engine)

• starta
• starter
• startare

• start in Svenska Akademiens ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)

Borrowed from English start.

• IPA^(key): [staɾt]
• Hyphenation: start

start (definite accusative startı, plural startlar)

1. start

As Turks are generally not easily spelling consonants at the beginning of a syllable, this word may often be spelled as [sɯtaɾt].

• finiş