start

noun

1. The beginning of an activity.

   “The movie was entertaining from start to finish.”

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

2. A sudden involuntary movement.

   “He woke with a start.”

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

   “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, horserace, etc., from the beginning of the event.

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

   “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. A 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.”

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

   “to get, or have, the start”

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

7. (UK, archaic, slang)A happening or proceeding.

   ““It's a rum start, old John Madingley's coming down to Tunnleton,” said Grafton, one evening in the smoking-room; […]”

8. (alt-of)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”)
9. An instance of starting.
10. A projection or protrusion; that which pokes out.
11. 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.”

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

    “... 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[…]”

    “[…] so that the horse may not expend his force in an oblique direction, but get a fair pull on the "starts."”

    “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[…]”

13. A typical button for video games, originally used to start a game, now also often to pause or choose an option.
14. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, uncountable)Acronym of simple triage and rapid treatment.
15. (alt-of, alternative, uncountable)Alternative form of Start (“a typical button for video games, originally used to start a game, now also often to pause or choose an option”)

verb

1. (ergative)To begin, commence, initiate.

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

   “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.”

   “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. (ergative)To begin, commence, initiate.

   “The President fired the gun to start the footrace.”

   “The rain started at 9:00.”

   “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.”

   “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. (ergative)To begin, commence, initiate.

   “to start the engine”

4. (ergative)To begin, commence, initiate.
5. (ergative)To begin, commence, initiate.

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

6. (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.”

7. (intransitive)To move suddenly, from a previous state of rest; to startle.

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

   “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: […]”

   “I start as from some dreadful dream.”

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

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

8. (intransitive)To move suddenly, from a previous state of rest; to startle.

   “I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; [...]”

9. (transitive)To move suddenly, from a previous state of rest; to startle.

   “The hounds started a fox.”

   “Upon malicious bravery dost thou come To start my quiet?”

10. (ergative)To move suddenly, from a previous state of rest; to startle.

    “the storm started the bolts in the vessel”

    “One, by a fall in wrestling, started the end of the clavicle from the sternon.”

    “[...] 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.”

11. (transitive)To put into play.

    “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.”

    ““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.’””

12. (transitive)To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from.

    “to start a water cask”

13. (euphemistic, intransitive)To begin one's menstrual cycle.

    “Have you started yet?”

adv

1. (archaic, dialectal)Completely, 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.”

name

1. A surname from Old English.
2. (UK, obsolete, slang)The city of London, England.

   “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.”

3. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of)Acronym of Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.