start

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

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • Audio (UK); “to start”:

    (file)

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

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Canada) enPR: stärt, IPA^(key): /stɑɹt/, [stäɹt]
  • (Ottawa Valley) IPA^(key): /stæɹt/
• 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.

   • 1599 (date written), 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.

2. 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 […]

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.

   • 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.

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

7. (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; […]

• → German: Start
• → Persian: استارت (estârt)
• → Japanese: スタート

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.

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

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

   2. To begin.

      The President fired the gun to start the footrace.

      The rain started at 9:00.

      • 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.

      • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

        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.

   4. To ready the operation of a vehicle or machine.

      to start the engine

   5. To put or raise (a question, an objection); to put forward (a subject for discussion).
   6. 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.

2. (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.

3. To move suddenly, from a previous state of rest; to startle.
   1. (intransitive) To jerk, jump up, flinch, or draw back in surprise.

      Synonym: jump

      • 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.

      • 1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter VIII, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC, page 139:

        Suddenly his eye fell on the screen that he had placed in front of the portrait, and he started.

      • 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?

   2. (intransitive) To awaken suddenly.
      • 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter IV, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 100:

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

   3. (transitive) To disturb and set in motion; to alarm; to rouse; to cause to flee.

      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?

   4. (ergative, of an object) To come loose, to break free of a firmly set position; to displace or loosen; to dislocate.

      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.

      • 1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for 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.

4. (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.

   • 2024 May 6, Sid Lowe, “Portu’s brilliant burst seals Girona’s top-four fairytale in the perfect way”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     “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.’”

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

   to start a water cask

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

   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

• See Thesaurus:begin.

• (antonym(s) of “to begin”):

  • (to stop) stop, end, cease
  • (to finish) finish, conclude, complete

• → 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

start (plural starts)

1. An instance of starting.

• hard start

See also the terms derived from starting.

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”).

start (plural starts)

1. A projection or protrusion; that which pokes out.
2. 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.

3. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) The arm, or level, of a gin, drawn around by a horse.
   • 1834, William Andrus Alcott, Samuel Griswold Goodrich, Parley's Magazine, page 364:

     ... 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 […]

   • 1854, Glynn, Rudimentary Treatise on the Construction of Cranes and Machinery for Raising Heavy Bodies, page 13:

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

   • 1973, Industrial Archaeology, page 254:

     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 […]

• clubstart
• redstart

Variant of stark.^[1]

start (comparative more start, superlative most start)

1. (dialectal, archaic) Completely, utterly.
   • 1828 August 22, “Militia System”, in The New England Farmer, volume VII, Boston, M.A.: John B. Russell, published 1829, page 40, column 1:

     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.

• Strat, trats, 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]‎^[3], Simferopol: Dolya, →ISBN

Borrowed from English start.

• IPA^(key): [ˈstart]

start m inan

1. start (beginning point of a race)

• cíl m

• “start”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “start”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

Borrowed from English start.

start c (singular definite starten, plural indefinite starter)

1. start

start

1. imperative of starte

• IPA^(key): /stɑrt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: start
• Rhymes: -ɑrt

Borrowed from English start.

start m (plural starts, diminutive startje n)

1. start

• pikstart
• startbaan
• starten
• startpunt

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

start

1. inflection of starten:
   1. first/second/third-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

start

1. singular imperative of starten

• IPA^(key): /ˈstart/

start

1. first/second-person singular perfect of satar

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): /ˈstart/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -art
• Syllabification: start

start m inan

1. (sports) start (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.

• start in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• start in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Unadapted borrowing from English start.

start m (plural starts)

1. alternative form of estarte

Borrowed from English start.

start n (plural starturi)

1. start (of a race)

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 (SAOL)

• ratts, trast

Borrowed from English start.

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

start (definite accusative startı, plural startlar)

1. start

Turkish phonotactics disallows complex syllable onsets, thus speakers may epenthesize a vowel after the first consonant, pronouncing it as [sɯtaɾt].

• finiş