start

verb16

1. •
   to begin doing something, or to begin to happen

   • The President fired the gun to start the footrace.
   • The rain started at 9:00.
2. •
   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. •
   (euphemistic) To begin one's menstrual cycle.

   • Have you started yet?
4. •
   To begin, commence, initiate.
5. •
   To set in motion.

   • 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. — 1716
6. •
   To ready the operation of a vehicle or machine.
7. •
   To move suddenly, from a previous state of rest; to startle.
8. •
   To jerk, jump up, flinch, or draw back in surprise.

   • But if he start, It is the flesh of a corrupted heart. — 1597
9. •
   To awaken suddenly.

   • I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; [...] — 1816
10. •
    To disturb and set in motion; to alarm; to rouse; to cause to flee.

    • The hounds started a fox.
11. •
    To put into play.

    • 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. — 2010
12. •
    To put or raise (a question, an objection); to put forward (a subject for discussion).
13. •
    To bring onto being or into view; to originate; to invent.

    • Sensual men agree in the pursuit of every pleasure they can start. — 1674
14. •
    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
15. •
    To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from.
16. •
    To begin a journey; to set forth.

noun12

1. •
   The beginning of an activity.

   • The movie was entertaining from start to finish.
2. •
   An instance of starting.
3. •
   The beginning point of a race, a board game, etc.

   • Captured pieces are returned to the start of the board.
4. •
   An initial advantage over somebody else; a head start.

   • to get, or have, the start
5. •
   A sudden involuntary movement.

   • He woke with a start.
6. •
   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.
7. •
   A typical button for video games, originally used to start a game, now also often to pause or choose an option.
8. •
   A young plant germinated in a pot to be transplanted later.

   • 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. — 2009
9. •
   A projection or protrusion; that which pokes out.
10. •
    The curved or inclined front and bottom of a water wheel bucket.

    • 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. — 1845
11. •
    The arm, or level, of a gin, drawn around by a horse.

    • […] so that the horse may not expend his force in an oblique direction, but get a fair pull on the "starts." — 1854
12. •
    (slang, no longer used) A happening or proceeding.

    • “It's a rum start, old John Madingley's coming down to Tunnleton,” said Grafton, one evening in the smoking-room; […] — 1887

adverb1

1. •
   (dialect, no longer used) Completely, utterly.

   • 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. — 1828

noun1

1. •
   Acronym of simple triage and rapid treatment.