start
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: hobbies
lifestyle
nautical
sports
transport
Etymology: 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.
Inflected forms:
form: starts
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: starting
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: started
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: started
pos: verb
tags: past
form: sta't
pos: verb
tags: alternative
pronunciation-spelling
form: staht
pos: verb
tags: alternative
pronunciation-spelling
Senses:
gloss: To begin, commence, initiate.
pos: verb
tags: ergative
examples: to start a stream of water; to start a rumour; to start a business
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.
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.
gloss: To begin, commence, initiate.
pos: verb
tags: ergative
examples: The President fired the gun to start the footrace.
The rain started at 9:00.
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.
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.
gloss: To begin, commence, initiate.
pos: verb
tags: ergative
examples: to start the engine
gloss: To begin, commence, initiate.
pos: verb
tags: ergative
gloss: To begin, commence, initiate.
pos: verb
tags: ergative
examples: Sensual men agree in the pursuit of every pleasure they can start.
gloss: To have its origin (at), begin.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The speed limit is 50 km/h, starting at the edge of town.
The blue line starts one foot away from the wall.
gloss: To move suddenly, from a previous state of rest; to startle.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: But if he start,
 It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.
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: […]
I start as from some dreadful dream.
Keep your soul to the work when it is ready to start aside.
[...] The tempest's mocking elf
 Points to the shipman thus the unseen shelf
 He strikes on, only when the timbers start.
Suddenly his eye fell on the screen that he had placed in front of the portrait, and he started.
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?
gloss: To move suddenly, from a previous state of rest; to startle.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; [...]
gloss: To move suddenly, from a previous state of rest; to startle.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The hounds started a fox.
Upon malicious bravery dost thou come
 To start my quiet?
gloss: To move suddenly, from a previous state of rest; to startle.
pos: verb
tags: ergative
examples: the storm started the bolts in the vessel
One, by a fall in wrestling, started the end of the clavicle from the sternon.
[...] 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.
gloss: To put into play.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
“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.’”
gloss: To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to start a water cask
gloss: To begin one's menstrual cycle.
pos: verb
tags: euphemistic
intransitive
examples: Have you started yet?
Synonyms: begin
Antonyms: stop
end
cease
finish
conclude
complete
Derived words: autostart
bump-start
deadstart
kick start
outstart
push-start
restart
astart
get in the boat and start rowing
misstart
never start a land war in Asia
self-starting
startable
start a family
start afresh
start a fresh hare
start a hare
start a hare running
start and park
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
unstarted
when the looting starts, the shooting starts
Translations: