From Middle Englishstert, 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 (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.
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
cold start
Delaware start
down start
false start
flying start
for a start
fresh start
from a standing start
from start to finish
from the start
headstart
hill start
jackrabbit start
jumpstart
kickstart
kick start
mass start
multi-start
night start
one-start
pull start
push-start
quality start
recoil start
rolling start
shotgun start
sleep start
standing start
start codon
start key
start page
start time
stop-start
two-start
warm start
Descendants
[edit]
→ German: Start
→ Persian: استارت(estârt)
→ Japanese: スタート
Translations
[edit] beginning of an activity
Albanian: fillimi, nisja
American Sign Language: 1@InFinger-PalmDown-OpenB@CenterChesthigh 1@InFinger-PalmUp-OpenB@CenterChesthigh
Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: почетакm, полазиштеn Roman: početak (sh)m, polazište (sh)n
Sicilian: partenzaf
Spanish: salida (es)
Tagalog: simula
Turkish: start (tr)
appearance in a sports game from the beginning of the match
Bulgarian: титуляр (bg)m(tituljar)
Finnish: aloituskokoonpano
horticulture: young plant germinated in a pot to be transplanted later
Bulgarian: разсадm(razsad)
Finnish: istukas (fi), taimi (fi)
initial advantage over somebody else — see head start The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations. Translations to be checked
Telugu: (please verify) మొదలు (te)(modalu), (please verify) ప్రారంభం (te)(prārambhaṁ)
Etymology 2
[edit]
From Middle Englishsterten(“to leap up suddenly, rush out”), from Old Englishstyrtan(“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 Frisianstirta(“to fall down, tumble”), Middle Dutchsterten(“to rush, fall, collapse”) (Dutchstorten), Old High Germansturzen(“to hurl, plunge, turn upside down”) (Germanstürzen), Old High Germansterzan(“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)
(ergative) 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. 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.
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.
(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 move suddenly, from a previous state of rest; to startle.
(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.: 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?
(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; [...]
(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?
(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.
(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.’”
(transitive, nautical) To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from. to start a water cask
(intransitive, euphemistic) To begin one's menstrual cycle. 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
Synonyms
[edit]
See Thesaurus:begin.
Antonyms
[edit]
(antonym(s) of “to begin”):
(to stop)stop, end, cease
(to finish)finish, conclude, complete
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
start back
start back in
start back on
starter
start from where you are
start in
starting post
start in on
start into
start on at
start over
start the ball rolling
start-up
start up on
start with a clean sheet
start with a clean sheet of paper
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] to begin
Afrikaans: aangaan (af)
Albanian: fillo, Nis
American Sign Language: 1@InFinger-PalmDown-OpenB@CenterChesthigh 1@InFinger-PalmUp-OpenB@CenterChesthigh
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations. Translations to be checked
From Middle Englishstert, start(“tail, handle, projection”), from Old Englishsteort, from Proto-West Germanic*stert, from Proto-Germanic*stertaz(“tail”). Cognate with Scotsstart, stairt(“side-post, shaft, upright post”), Dutchstaart(“tail”), GermanSterz(“tail, handle”), Swedishstjärt(“tail, arse”).
Noun
[edit]
start (plural starts)
A projection or protrusion; that which pokes out.
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.
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[…]
Derived terms
[edit]
clubstart
redstart
Etymology 4
[edit]
Variant of stark.[1]
Adverb
[edit]
start (comparative more start, superlative most start)
(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.
References
[edit]
^ “start, adv.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
Anagrams
[edit]
Strat, trats, tarts, strat, Tarts
Breton
[edit]
Adjective
[edit]
start
firm, strong
difficult
Derived terms
[edit]
startijenn
Further reading
[edit]
Herve Ar Bihan, Colloquial Breton, pages 16 and 268: define "start" as "hard, difficult, firm"
Crimean Tatar
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]
Borrowed from Englishstart.
Noun
[edit]
start
start
Declension
[edit]
Declension of start
nominative
start
genitive
startnıñ
dative
startqa
accusative
startnı
locative
startta
ablative
starttan
References
[edit]
Mirjejev, V. A.; Usejinov, S. M. (2002), Ukrajinsʹko-krymsʹkotatarsʹkyj slovnyk [Ukrainian – Crimean Tatar Dictionary][3], Simferopol: Dolya, →ISBN
Czech
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]
Borrowed from Englishstart.
Pronunciation
[edit]
IPA(key): [ˈstart]
Noun
[edit]
startm inan
start(beginning point of a race)
Declension
[edit] Declension of start (hard masculine inanimate)
singular
plural
nominative
start
starty
genitive
startu
startů
dative
startu
startům
accusative
start
starty
vocative
starte
starty
locative
startu
startech
instrumental
startem
starty
Related terms
[edit]
připravit se, pozor, start
See also
[edit]
cílm
Further reading
[edit]
“start”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
“start”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
start (the beginning point of a race, a board game, etc.)
Related terms
[edit]
starter
Further reading
[edit]
“start”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016
[edit]Polish Wikipedia has an article on:startWikipedia pl
Etymology
[edit]
Borrowed from Englishstart.
Pronunciation
[edit]
IPA(key): /ˈstart/
Audio:
(file)
Rhymes: -art
Syllabification: start
Noun
[edit]
startm 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] Declension of start
singular
plural
nominative
start
starty
genitive
startu
startów
dative
startowi
startom
accusative
start
starty
instrumental
startem
startami
locative
starcie
startach
vocative
starcie
starty
Derived terms
[edit]
falstart
startować
startowy
Further reading
[edit]
start in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. 
