flying start

From sailboat races, where the ships should be 'flying' under full sail as they cross the starting line.

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flying start (plural flying starts)

1. (idiomatic) An especially good start.

   The new restaurant got off to a flying start, packing out every night.

   • 1956 February, W. A. Tuplin, “Hot Work on a "Star"”, in Railway Magazine, page 90:

     He puts the brakes on here and there down the next four miles of curves, but then opens her out so that she rocks and rolls through Totnes at a mile a minute for a flying start on the worst bank of the whole trip, five steep miles up to Rattery Box and four not so steep past Brent up to Wrangaton.

   • 2011 December 29, Keith Jackson, “SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0”, in Daily Record‎^[1]:

     And six minutes in they should have got off to a flying start. Aluko caused the damage. The winger slipped away from Ledley then stood up a cross to the back post which seemed perfect for Lee Wallace charging in.

2. The start of a sports event in which the competitors are moving when they pass the starting line or initial jump point.

• with flying colours

• “flying start” (US) / “flying start” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “flying start”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “a flying start” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.