start

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To begin doing something.

   We started the meeting at nine o'clock.

2. 2
   verb

   To make a machine or engine begin working.

   The car won't start in cold weather.

3. 3
   noun

   The beginning of something.

   The race got off to a good start.

4. 4
   noun

   A sudden quick movement caused by surprise or fear.

   They woke up with a start when the alarm rang.

Multiword verbs with start

• start over Phrasal verb A1

  to begin again from the beginning

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Start comes from Old English styrtan, meaning to caper or leap. The idea of a sudden movement developed into setting out or initiating movement and then into the general sense of beginning a process; startle comes from the same root.

From Middle English stert, start (“tail, handle, projection”), from Old English steort (“tail”), 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”), Danish stjert (“tail of a bird”), Faroese stertur (“tail”), Icelandic stertur (“short horse tail”), Norn skjårt (“tail”), sterti (“tail of a large fish”), stjårt (“tail of a large fish”), Norwegian stjert (“tail of a bird”), Swedish stjärt (“tail, arse”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary