Wiktionary

start

See also: Start, START, štart, and старт

English

edit

Pronunciation

edit

Etymology 1

edit

From Middle English stert, from the verb sterten (“to start, startle”). See below.

Noun

edit

start (plural starts)

  1. The beginning of an activity.
    The movie was entertaining from start to finish.
  2. A sudden involuntary movement.
    He woke with a start.
  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; […]
Derived terms
edit
Descendants
edit
  • → German: Start
  • → Persian: استارت (estârt)
  • → Japanese: スタート
Translations
edit
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

Etymology 2

edit

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.

Verb

edit

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.: 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.
    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?
Usage notes
edit
Synonyms
edit
Antonyms
edit
Derived terms
edit
Descendants
edit
Translations
edit
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

Noun

edit

start (plural starts)

  1. An instance of starting.
Derived terms
edit

See also

edit
See also the terms derived from starting.

Etymology 3

edit

    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”).

    Noun

    edit

    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. 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

    Etymology 4

    edit

    Variant of stark.[1]

    Adverb

    edit

    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.

    References

    edit
    1. ^ “start, adv.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

    Anagrams

    edit

    Breton

    edit

    Adjective

    edit

    start

    1. firm, strong
    2. difficult

    Derived terms

    edit

    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 English start.

    Noun

    edit

    start

    1. 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 English start.

    Pronunciation

    edit

    Noun

    edit

    start m inan

    1. 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
    edit

    See also

    edit

    Further reading

    edit

    Danish

    edit

    Etymology

    edit

    Borrowed from English start.

    Noun

    edit

    start c (singular definite starten, plural indefinite starter)

    1. start

    Inflection

    edit
    Declension of start
    common
    gender     		singular plural
    indefinite definite indefinite definite
    nominative start starten starter starterne
    genitive starts startens starters starternes

    Verb

    edit

    start

    1. imperative of starte

    Dutch

    edit

    Pronunciation

    edit

    Etymology 1

    edit

    Borrowed from English start.

    Noun

    edit

    start m (plural starts, diminutive startje n)

    1. start
    Derived terms
    edit

    Etymology 2

    edit

    See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

    Verb

    edit

    start

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

    German

    edit

    Pronunciation

    edit

    Verb

    edit

    start

    1. singular imperative of starten

    Indonesian

    edit

    Etymology

    edit

    Borrowed from Dutch start, from English start.

    Pronunciation

    edit

    Verb

    edit

    start

    1. synonym of memulai
    2. synonym of berangkat

    Noun

    edit

    start (plural start-start)

    1. start (the beginning point of a race, a board game, etc.)
    edit

    Further reading

    edit

    Maltese

    edit

    Pronunciation

    edit

    Verb

    edit

    start

    1. first/second-person singular perfect of satar

    Norwegian Bokmål

    edit

    Etymology 1

    edit

    Borrowed from English start.

    Noun

    edit

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

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

    Etymology 2

    edit

    Verb

    edit

    start

    1. imperative of starte

    References

    edit

    Norwegian Nynorsk

    edit

    Etymology

    edit

    Borrowed from English start.

    Pronunciation

    edit

    Noun

    edit

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

    1. a start (beginning)

    Verb

    edit

    start

    1. imperative of starta

    Derived terms

    edit

    References

    edit

    Polish

    edit
    Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
    Wikipedia pl

    Etymology

    edit

    Borrowed from English start.

    Pronunciation

    edit

    Noun

    edit

    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.

    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

    Further reading

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

    Portuguese

    edit

    Etymology

    edit

    Unadapted borrowing from English start.

    Noun

    edit

    start m (plural starts)

    1. alternative form of estarte

    Romanian

    edit

    Etymology

    edit

    Borrowed from English start.

    Noun

    edit

    start n (plural starturi)

    1. start (of a race)

    Declension

    edit
    singular plural
    indefinite definite indefinite definite
    nominative-accusative start startul starturi starturile
    genitive-dative start startului starturi starturilor
    vocative startule starturilor

    Swedish

    edit

    Etymology

    edit

    Borrowed from English start.

    Pronunciation

    edit

    Noun

    edit

    start c

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

    Declension

    edit
    Declension of start
    nominative genitive
    singular indefinite start starts
    definite starten startens
    plural indefinite starter starters
    definite starterna starternas

    Derived terms

    edit
    edit

    References

    edit

    Anagrams

    edit

    Turkish

    edit

    Etymology

    edit

    Borrowed from English start.

    Pronunciation

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

    Noun

    edit

    start (definite accusative startı, plural startlar)

    1. start

    Usage notes

    edit

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

    Declension

    edit
    Declension of start
    singular plural
    nominative start startlar
    definite accusative startı startları
    dative starta startlara
    locative startta startlarda
    ablative starttan startlardan
    genitive startın startların
    Possessive forms
    nominative
    singular plural
    1st singular startım startlarım
    2nd singular startın startların
    3rd singular startı startları
    1st plural startımız startlarımız
    2nd plural startınız startlarınız
    3rd plural startları startları
    definite accusative
    singular plural
    1st singular startımı startlarımı
    2nd singular startını startlarını
    3rd singular startını startlarını
    1st plural startımızı startlarımızı
    2nd plural startınızı startlarınızı
    3rd plural startlarını startlarını
    dative
    singular plural
    1st singular startıma startlarıma
    2nd singular startına startlarına
    3rd singular startına startlarına
    1st plural startımıza startlarımıza
    2nd plural startınıza startlarınıza
    3rd plural startlarına startlarına
    locative
    singular plural
    1st singular startımda startlarımda
    2nd singular startında startlarında
    3rd singular startında startlarında
    1st plural startımızda startlarımızda
    2nd plural startınızda startlarınızda
    3rd plural startlarında startlarında
    ablative
    singular plural
    1st singular startımdan startlarımdan
    2nd singular startından startlarından
    3rd singular startından startlarından
    1st plural startımızdan startlarımızdan
    2nd plural startınızdan startlarınızdan
    3rd plural startlarından startlarından
    genitive
    singular plural
    1st singular startımın startlarımın
    2nd singular startının startlarının
    3rd singular startının startlarının
    1st plural startımızın startlarımızın
    2nd plural startınızın startlarınızın
    3rd plural startlarının startlarının

    Antonyms

    edit
    Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=start&oldid=88705235"