start
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /stɑːt/
- (General American) enPR: stärt, IPA(key): /stɑɹt/
Audio (US) (file)
- Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)t
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English stert, from the verb sterten (“to start, startle”). See below.
NounEdit
start (plural starts)
- The beginning of an activity.
- The movie was entertaining from start to finish.
- 1599, 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 606515358, [Act III, scene i]:
- I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, / Straining upon the start.
- A sudden involuntary movement.
- He woke with a start.
- 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 228727523:
- Nature does nothing by starts and leaps, or in a hurry.
- 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, Olalla
- The sight of his scared face, his starts and pallors and sudden harkenings, unstrung me […]
- The beginning point of a race, a board game, etc.
- Captured pieces are returned to the start of the board.
- 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.
- 2011 February 12, Ian Hughes, “Arsenal 2 - 0 Wolverhampton”, in BBC[1]:
- 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.
- (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.
- 2009, Liz Primeau, Steven A. Frowine, Gardening Basics For Canadians For Dummies
- An initial advantage over somebody else; a head start.
- to get, or have, the start
- (UK, slang, archaic) A happening or proceeding.
- 1887, Hawley Smart, A False Start (volume 2, page 69)
- “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)
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
- → German: Start
TranslationsEdit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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Etymology 2Edit
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.
VerbEdit
start (third-person singular simple present starts, present participle starting, simple past and past participle started)
- (transitive) To begin, commence, initiate.
- To set in motion.
- to start a stream of water; to start a rumour; to start a business
- April 2, 1716, Joseph Addison, Freeholder No. 30
- 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.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071:
- 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.
- 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.
- To ready the operation of a vehicle or machine.
- to start the engine
- To put or raise (a question, an objection); to put forward (a subject for discussion).
- To bring onto being or into view; to originate; to invent.
- 1674, William Temple, letter to The Countess of Essex
- Sensual men agree in the pursuit of every pleasure they can start.
- 1674, William Temple, letter to The Countess of Essex
- To set in motion.
- (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.
- (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.
- To startle or be startled; to move or be moved suddenly.
- (intransitive) To jerk suddenly in surprise.
- 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 606515358, [Act V, scene v]:
- But if he start,
It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.
- 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 606515358, [Act I, scene v], page 257, column 2:
- 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: […]
- 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 6484883, (please specify the page number):
- I start as from some dreadful dream.
- 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 1325830848:
- Keep your soul to the work when it is 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.
- [...] The tempest's mocking elf
- (intransitive) To awaken suddenly.
- 1818, [Mary Shelley], chapter IV, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, OCLC 830979744, page 100:
- I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; [...]
- (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. 1603–1604 (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 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:
- Upon malicious bravery dost thou come
To start my quiet?
- (intransitive) To flinch or draw back.
- 1836, Elizur Wright, Quarterly Anti-slavery Magazine (volume 2, page 162)
- Physical poison would make them start from arsenicked bread; shall not the moral poison which is in it, make them start more promptly still from slave produce?
- 1836, Elizur Wright, Quarterly Anti-slavery Magazine (volume 2, page 162)
- (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
- 1676, Richard Wiseman, Severall Chirurgical Treatises
- One, by a fall in wrestling, started the end of the clavicle from the sternon.
- (intransitive) To jerk suddenly in surprise.
- (intransitive) To break away, to come loose.
- 1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], OCLC 731622352, page 76:
- [...] 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.
- (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.
- (transitive, nautical) To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from.
- to start a water cask
- (intransitive, euphemistic) To start one's periods (menstruation).
- Have you started yet?
Usage notesEdit
- 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
AntonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
- → Dutch: starten
- → German: starten
- → Norman: stèrter
- → French: starter
- → Icelandic: starta
- → Faroese: starta
- → Norwegian Bokmål: starte
- → Norwegian Nynorsk: starta
- → Swedish: starta
- → Danish: starte
- → Slovak: štartovať
TranslationsEdit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
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NounEdit
start (plural starts)
- An instance of starting.
Derived termsEdit
See alsoEdit
- See also the terms derived from starting.
Etymology 3Edit
From Middle English stert, start (“tail, handle, projection”), from Old English steort, stert, 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”), Swedish stjärt (“tail, arse”).
NounEdit
start (plural starts)
- A projection or protrusion; that which pokes out.
- A handle, especially that of a plough.
- The curved or inclined front and bottom of a water wheel bucket.
- The arm, or level, of a gin, drawn around by a horse.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for start in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)
Derived termsEdit
AnagramsEdit
BretonEdit
AdjectiveEdit
start
Derived termsEdit
Further readingEdit
- Herve Ar Bihan, Colloquial Breton, pages 16 and 268: define "start" as "hard, difficult, firm"
Crimean TatarEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
start
- start
DeclensionEdit
nominative | start |
---|---|
genitive | startnıñ |
dative | startqa |
accusative | startnı |
locative | startta |
ablative | starttan |
ReferencesEdit
CzechEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
start m
- start (beginning point of a race)
DeclensionEdit
Related termsEdit
See alsoEdit
- cíl m
Further readingEdit
DanishEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
start c (singular definite starten, plural indefinite starter)
InflectionEdit
common gender |
Singular | Plural | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
nominative | start | starten | starter | starterne |
genitive | starts | startens | starters | starternes |
VerbEdit
start
- imperative of starte
DutchEdit
PronunciationEdit
Etymology 1Edit
NounEdit
start m (plural starts, diminutive startje n)
Derived termsEdit
Etymology 2Edit
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
VerbEdit
start
- first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of starten
- imperative of starten
GermanEdit
VerbEdit
start
Norwegian BokmålEdit
Etymology 1Edit
NounEdit
start m (definite singular starten, indefinite plural starter, definite plural startene)
- a start
- fra start til mål ― from start to finish
Derived termsEdit
Etymology 2Edit
VerbEdit
start
- imperative of starte
ReferencesEdit
- “start” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian NynorskEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
start m (definite singular starten, indefinite plural startar, definite plural startane)
- a start (beginning)
VerbEdit
start
- imperative of starta
Derived termsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “start” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
PolishEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
start m inan
- (sports) start (beginning of a race)
- (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.
- 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.
DeclensionEdit
Derived termsEdit
Further readingEdit
RomanianEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
start n (plural starturi)
- start (of a race)
DeclensionEdit
singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite articulation | definite articulation | indefinite articulation | definite articulation | |
nominative/accusative | (un) start | startul | (niște) starturi | starturile |
genitive/dative | (unui) start | startului | (unor) starturi | starturilor |
vocative | startule | starturilor |
SwedishEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
audio (file)
NounEdit
start c
DeclensionEdit
Declension of start | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
Nominative | start | starten | starter | starterna |
Genitive | starts | startens | starters | starternas |
Derived termsEdit
- kallstart
- nystart
- omstart
- startanordning
- startavgift
- startbana
- startbatteri
- startberedd
- startbidrag
- startbil
- startblock
- startelva
- startflagga
- startfält
- startfålla
- startgalopp
- startgrop
- startgrupp
- starthjälp
- startkabel
- startkapital
- startklar
- startknapp
- startledare
- startlinje
- startlista
- startläge
- startman
- startmotor
- startnummer
- startnyckel
- startpall
- startpistol
- startplats
- startplatta
- startpunkt
- startraket
- startsida
- startsignal
- startskott
- startsnabb
- startspår
- startsträcka
- starttid
- startur
- startvev
- startväxel
- startögonblick
- tjuvstart
Related termsEdit
ReferencesEdit
AnagramsEdit
TurkishEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
start (definite accusative startı, plural startlar)
Usage notesEdit
Turkish phonotactics disallows complex syllable onsets, thus speakers may epenthesize a vowel after the first consonant, pronouncing it as [sɯtaɾt].