Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Start

Start

(stärt)
,
Verb.
T.
1.
To cause to move suddenly; to disturb suddenly; to startle; to alarm; to rouse; to cause to flee or fly;
as, the hounds
started
a fox
.
Upon malicious bravery dost thou come
To
start
my quiet?
Shakespeare
Brutus will
start
a spirit as soon as Caesar.
Shakespeare
2.
To bring into being or into view; to originate; to invent.
Sensual men agree in the pursuit of every pleasure they can
start
.
Sir W. Temple.
3.
To cause to move or act; to set going, running, or flowing;
as, to
start
a railway train; to
start
a mill; to
start
a stream of water; to
start
a rumor; to
start
a business
.
I was engaged in conversation upon a subject which the people love to
start
in discourse.
Addison.
4.
To move suddenly from its place or position; to displace or loosen; to dislocate;
as, to
start
a bone; the storm
started
the bolts in the vessel
.
One, by a fall in wrestling,
started
the end of the clavicle from the sternum.
Wiseman.
5.
[Perh. from D.
storten
, which has this meaning also.]
(Naut.)
To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from;
as, to
start
a water cask
.

Start

,
Noun.
1.
The act of starting; a sudden spring, leap, or motion, caused by surprise, fear, pain, or the like; any sudden motion, or beginning of motion.
The fright awakened Arcite with a
start
.
Dryden.
2.
A convulsive motion, twitch, or spasm; a spasmodic effort.
For she did speak in
starts
distractedly.
Shakespeare
Nature does nothing by
starts
and leaps, or in a hurry.
L’Estrange.
3.
A sudden, unexpected movement; a sudden and capricious impulse; a sally;
as,
starts
of fancy
.
To check the
starts
and sallies of the soul.
Addison.
4.
The beginning, as of a journey or a course of action; first motion from a place; act of setting out; the outset; – opposed to
finish
.
The
start
of first performance is all.
Bacon.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the
start
.
Shakespeare
At a start
,
at once; in an instant.
[Obs.]
At a start
he was betwixt them two.
Chaucer.
To get the start
, or
To have the start
,
to begin before another; to gain or have the advantage in a similar undertaking; – usually with of.
Get the start of the majestic world.”
Shak.
“She might have forsaken him if he had not got the start of her.”
Dryden.

Start

,
Noun.
[OE.
stert
a tail, AS.
steort
; akin to LG.
stert
,
steert
, D.
staart
, G.
sterz
, Icel.
stertr
, Dan.
stiert
, Sw.
stjert
. √166. Cf.
Stark naked
, under
Stark
,
Start
,
Verb.
I.
]
1.
A tail, or anything projecting like a tail.
2.
The handle, or tail, of a plow; also, any long handle.
[Prov. Eng.]
3.
The curved or inclined front and bottom of a water-wheel bucket.
4.
(Mining)
The arm, or lever, of a gin, drawn around by a horse.

Webster 1828 Edition


Start

START

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To move suddenly, as if by a twitch; as, to start in sleep or by a sudden spasm.
2.
To move suddenly, as by an involuntary shrinking from sudden fear or alarm.
I start as from some dreadful dream.
3.
To move with sudden quickness, as with a spring or leap.
A spirit fit to start into an empire, and look the world to law.
4.
To shrink; to wince.
But if he start, it is the flesh of a corrupted heart.
5.
To move suddenly aside; to deviate; generally with from, out of, or aside.
Th old drudging sun from his long beaten way shall at thy voice start and misguide the day.
Keep your soul to the work when ready to start aside.
6.
To set out; to commence a race, as from a barrier or goal. The horses started at the word, go.
At once they start, advancing in a line.
7.
To set out; to commence a journey or enterprise. The public coaches start at six oclock.
When two start into the world together--
To start up, to rise suddenly, as from a seat or couch; or to come suddenly into notice or importance.

START

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To alarm; to disturb suddenly; to startle; to rouse.
Upon malicious bravery dost thou come, to start my quiet?
2.
To rouse suddenly from concealment; to cause to flee or fly; as, to start a hare or a woodcock; to start game.
3.
To bring into motion; to produce suddenly to view or notice.
Brutus will start a spirit as soon as Cesar.
The present occasion has started the dispute among us.
So we say, to start a question, to start an objection; that is, to suggest or propose anew.
4.
To invent or discover; to bring within pursuit.
Sensual men agree in the pursuit of every pleasure they can start.
5.
To move suddenly from its place; to dislocate; as, to start a bone.
One started the end of the clavicle from the sternum.
6.
To empty, as liquor from a cask; to pour out; as, to start wine into another cask.

START

,
Noun.
1.
A sudden motion of the body, produced by spasm; a sudden twitch or spasmodic affection; as a start in sleep.
2.
A sudden motion from alarm.
The fright awakend Arcite with a start.
3.
A sudden rousing to action; a spring; excitement.
Now fear I this will give it start again.
4.
Sally; sudden motion or effusion; a bursting forth; as starts of fancy.
To check the starts and sallies of the soul.
5.
Sudden fit; sudden motion followed by intermission.
For she did speak in starts distractedly.
Nature does nothing by starts and leaps, or in a hurry.
6.
A quick spring; a darting; a shoot; a push; as, to give a start.
Both cause the string to give a quicker start.
7.
First in motion from a place; act of setting out.
The start of first performance is all.
You stand like grayhounds in the slips, straining upon the start.
To get the start, to begin before another; to gain the advantage in a similar undertaking.
Get the start of the majestic world.
She might have forsaken him, if he had not got the start of her.

START

,
Noun.
A projection; a push; a horn; a tail. IN the latter sense it occurs int he name of the bird red-start. Hence the Start, in Devonshire.

Definition 2024


Start

Start

See also: start and START

English

A Sega Mega Drive controller, with the Start button in the middle.

Alternative forms

Noun

Start (plural Starts)

  1. A typical button for video games, originally used to start a game, now also often to pause or choose an option.

Quotations

  • For usage examples of this term, see Citations:Start.

German

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ʃtaʁt/ (standard)
  • IPA(key): /ʃtaːt/ (common; especially northern and central Germany)
  • Homophone: Staat (nonstandard)

Noun

Start m (genitive Starts or Startes, plural Starts or Starte)

  1. start (begin of a project)
  2. start (beginning point of a race)
  3. takeoff (begin of a flight)

Derived terms

start

start

See also: Start and START

English

Noun

start (plural starts)

  1. The beginning of an activity.
    The movie was entertaining from start to finish.
    • Shakespeare
      I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, / Straining upon the start.
  2. A sudden involuntary movement.
    He woke with a start.
    • L'Estrange
      Nature does nothing by starts and leaps, or in a hurry.
    • 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.
  4. An appearance in a sports game from the beginning of the match.
    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:
      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.
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English sterten (to leap up suddenly, rush out), from Old English styrtan (to leap up, start), from Proto-Germanic *sturtijaną (to startle, move, set in motion), causative of *stirtaną (to leap, tumble), from Proto-Indo-European *stere-, *strē- (to be strong, steady, rigid, fixed). 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

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

  1. (transitive) To begin, commence, initiate.
    1. To set in motion.
      to start a stream of water;   to start a rumour;   to start a business
      • Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
        I was engaged in conversation upon a subject which the people love to start in discourse.
      • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
        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.
      • 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.
    3. To initiate operation of a vehicle or machine.
    4. To put or raise (a question, an objection); to put forward (a subject for discussion).
    5. To bring onto being or into view; to originate; to invent.
      • Sir William Temple (1628–1699)
        Sensual men agree in the pursuit of every pleasure they can start.
  2. (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.
  3. To startle or be startled; to move or be moved suddenly.
    1. (intransitive) To jerk suddenly in surprise.
      • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
        But if he start, / It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.
      • John Dryden (1631-1700)
        I start as from some dreadful dream.
      • Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
        Keep your soul to the work when ready to start aside.
    2. (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
      • Wiseman
        One, by a fall in wrestling, started the end of the clavicle from the sternum.
    3. (intransitive) To awaken suddenly.
      • (Can we date this quote?) Mary Shelley
        I started from my sleep with horror []
    4. To disturb and cause to move suddenly; to startle; to alarm; to rouse; to cause to flee or fly.
      The hounds started a fox.
  4. (intransitive) To break away, to come loose.
    • 1749, John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Penguin 1985 reprint), page 66:
      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 panel had warped or started a little on the other side.
  5. (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 9780571236053, 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.
  6. (nautical) To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from.
    to start a water cask
  7. (euphemistic) To start your periods (menstruation).
    Have you started yet?
Usage notes
  • 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
Derived terms
Translations

See also

Etymology 3

Noun

start (plural starts)

  1. A tail, or anything projecting like a tail.
  2. A handle, especially that of a plough.
  3. The curved or inclined front and bottom of a water wheel bucket.
  4. The arm, or level, of a gin, drawn around by a horse.

Anagrams


Crimean Tatar

Etymology

Borrowing from English start.

Noun

start

  1. start

Declension

References

  • Mirjejev, V. A.; Usejinov, S. M. (2002) Ukrajinsʹko-krymsʹkotatarsʹkyj slovnyk [Ukrainian – Crimean Tatar Dictionary], Simferopol: Dolya, ISBN 966-7980-89-8

Czech

Etymology

Borrowing from English start.

Noun

start m

  1. start (beginning point of a race)

Declension

Related terms

See also


Danish

Etymology

Borrowing from English start.

Noun

start c (singular definite starten, plural indefinite starter)

  1. start

Inflection

Verb

start

  1. imperative of starte

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -ɑrt

Etymology

Borrowing from English start.

Noun

start m (plural starts, diminutive startje n)

  1. start

Derived terms

Verb

start

  1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of starten
  2. imperative of starten

German

Verb

start

  1. Imperative singular of starten.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

Borrowing from English start.

Noun

start m (definite singular starten, indefinite plural starter, definite plural startene)

  1. a start
    fra start til mål - from start to finish
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Verb

start

  1. imperative of starte

References


Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Borrowing from English start.

Noun

start m (definite singular starten, indefinite plural startar, definite plural startane)

  1. a start

Derived terms

References


Polish

Etymology

Borrowing from English start.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /start/

Noun

start m inan

  1. (sports) start (the 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.

Declension

Derived terms

  • startować verb to start
  • startowy adjective starting, take-off
  • falstart (m) noun false start

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowing from English start.

Pronunciation

Noun

start c

  1. a start; a beginning (of a race)
  2. the starting (of an engine)

Declension

Inflection of start 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative start starten starter starterna
Genitive starts startens starters starternas

Related terms

  • kallstart
  • nystart
  • omstart
  • starta
  • starta-eget-birdag
  • starta-eget-kurs
  • startanordning
  • startare
  • startavgift
  • startbana
  • startbatteri
  • startberedd
  • startbidrag
  • startbil
  • startblock
  • startelva
  • starter
  • startflagga
  • startfålla
  • startfält
  • startgalopp
  • startgrop
  • startgrupp
  • starthjälp
  • startkabel
  • startkapital
  • startklar
  • startknapp
  • startledare
  • startlinje
  • startlista
  • startläge
  • startman
  • startmotor
  • startning
  • startnummer
  • startnyckel
  • startpall
  • startpistol
  • startplats
  • startplatta
  • startpunkt
  • startraket
  • startsida
  • startsignal
  • startskott
  • startsnabb
  • startspår
  • startsträcka
  • starttid
  • startur
  • startvev
  • startväxel
  • startögonblick
  • tjuvstart

References


Turkish

Etymology

Borrowing from English start.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

start (definite accusative startı, plural startlar)

  1. start

Antonyms

Declension

Usage notes

As Turks are generally not easily spelling consonants at the beginning of a syllable, this word may often be spelled as [sɯtaɾt].