start
English Edit
Pronunciation Edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /stɑːt/
- (General American) enPR: stärt, IPA(key): /stɑɹt/
Audio (US) (file)
- Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)t
Etymology 1 Edit
From Middle English stert, from the verb sterten (“to start, startle”). See below.
Noun Edit
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, [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:
- 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.
- 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; […]
Derived terms Edit
- alpine start
- black start
- bump-start
- by fits and starts
- by starts and leaps
- down start
- false start
- flying start
- for a start
- fresh start
- from a standing start
- from the start
- headstart
- hill start
- jackrabbit start
- jumpstart
- kick start
- kickstart
- multi-start
- night start
- one-start
- pull start
- push-start
- recoil start
- rolling start
- sleep start
- standing start
- start codon
- start key
- start page
- stop-start
- two-start
Descendants Edit
- → German: Start
Translations Edit
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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 2 Edit
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.
Verb Edit
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:
- 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.
- 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, [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, [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, (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:
- Keep your soul to the work when it is ready to start aside.
- 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXXI:
- [...] The tempest's mocking elf
Points to the shipman thus the unseen shelf
He strikes on, only when the timbers start.
- (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, 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, [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?
- (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 Chirurgicall Treatises, London: […] E. Flesher and J. Macock, for R[ichard] Royston […], and B[enjamin] Took, […], →OCLC:
- 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, 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 notes Edit
- 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
Antonyms Edit
Derived terms Edit
- astart
- bump-start
- get in the boat and start rowing
- kick start
- never start a land war in Asia
- push-start
- self-starting
- start a family
- start afresh
- start a fresh hare
- start a hare
- start a hare running
- starter
- start from where you are
- start in on
- start over
- start the ball rolling
- start-up
- start with a clean sheet
- start with a clean slate
- to start with
- when the looting starts, the shooting starts
Descendants Edit
- → Cantonese: 撻/挞 (taat1)
- → Dutch: starten
- → German: starten
- → Norman: stèrter
- → French: starter
- → Icelandic: starta
- → Faroese: starta
- → Norwegian Bokmål: starte
- → Norwegian Nynorsk: starta
- → Swedish: starta
- → Danish: starte
- → Slovak: štartovať
Translations Edit
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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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Noun Edit
start (plural starts)
- An instance of starting.
Derived terms Edit
See also Edit
- See also the terms derived from starting.
Etymology 3 Edit
From Middle English stert, start (“tail, handle, projection”), from Old English steort, 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”).
Noun Edit
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.
- 1845, Captain R.E. Crawley, Description of a Water-Course, Wharf, and Water-Wheel, erected at Waltham Abbey, Essex […] :
- 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.
- 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, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)
Derived terms Edit
Anagrams Edit
Breton Edit
Adjective Edit
start
Derived terms Edit
Further reading Edit
- Herve Ar Bihan, Colloquial Breton, pages 16 and 268: define "start" as "hard, difficult, firm"
Crimean Tatar Edit
Etymology Edit
Noun Edit
start
- start
Declension Edit
nominative | start |
---|---|
genitive | startnıñ |
dative | startqa |
accusative | startnı |
locative | startta |
ablative | starttan |
References Edit
Czech Edit
Etymology Edit
Pronunciation Edit
Noun Edit
start m inan
- start (beginning point of a race)
Declension Edit
Related terms Edit
See also Edit
- cíl m
Further reading Edit
Danish Edit
Etymology Edit
Noun Edit
start c (singular definite starten, plural indefinite starter)
Inflection Edit
common gender |
Singular | Plural | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
nominative | start | starten | starter | starterne |
genitive | starts | startens | starters | starternes |
Verb Edit
start
- imperative of starte
Dutch Edit
Pronunciation Edit
Etymology 1 Edit
Noun Edit
start m (plural starts, diminutive startje n)
Derived terms Edit
Etymology 2 Edit
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb Edit
start
- inflection of starten:
German Edit
Verb Edit
start
Norwegian Bokmål Edit
Etymology 1 Edit
Noun Edit
start m (definite singular starten, indefinite plural starter, definite plural startene)
- a start
- fra start til mål ― from start to finish
Derived terms Edit
Etymology 2 Edit
Verb Edit
start
- imperative of starte
References Edit
- “start” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian Nynorsk Edit
Etymology Edit
Pronunciation Edit
Noun Edit
start m (definite singular starten, indefinite plural startar, definite plural startane)
- a start (beginning)
Verb Edit
start
- imperative of starta
Derived terms Edit
References Edit
- “start” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Polish Edit
Etymology Edit
Pronunciation Edit
Noun Edit
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.
Declension Edit
Derived terms Edit
Further reading Edit
Romanian Edit
Etymology Edit
Noun Edit
start n (plural starturi)
- start (of a race)
Declension Edit
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 |
Swedish Edit
Etymology Edit
Pronunciation Edit
audio (file)
Noun Edit
start c
Declension Edit
Declension of start | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
Nominative | start | starten | starter | starterna |
Genitive | starts | startens | starters | starternas |
Derived terms Edit
- kallstart
- nystart
- omstart
- startanordning
- startavgift
- startbana
- startbatteri
- startberedd
- startbidrag
- startbil
- startblock
- startelva
- startflagga
- startfålla
- startfält
- 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 terms Edit
References Edit
Anagrams Edit
Turkish Edit
Etymology Edit
Pronunciation Edit
Noun Edit
start (definite accusative startı, plural startlar)
Usage notes Edit
Turkish phonotactics disallows complex syllable onsets, thus speakers may epenthesize a vowel after the first consonant, pronouncing it as [sɯtaɾt].