start

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a turn to be a starter in the beginning of a game

   Occasionally young players get to start games when a more experienced player is injured.

2. 2
   noun

   a sudden involuntary movement

   They awoke with a start.

3. 3
   noun

   the advantage gained by beginning early, as in a race

   With an hour's start, I will be hard to catch.

4. 4
   noun

   a signal to begin (as in a race)

   the starting signal was a green light

5. 5
   noun

   the beginning of anything

   it was off to a good start

6. 6
   noun

   the time at which something is supposed to begin

   they got an early start

7. 7
   verb

   set in motion, cause to start

   The U.S. started a war in the Middle East

8. 8
   verb

   get off the ground

   Who started this company?

Etymology

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”).