start

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“
And then Rodriguez rose, for the start was to be at dawn, and walked quietly through the singing out of the hall to the room where the great bed was.

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Definitions (100)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (30)

  1. intransitive verb To begin an activity or a movement; set out.
  2. intransitive verb To have a beginning; commence. See Synonyms at begin.
  3. intransitive verb To move suddenly or involuntarily: started at the loud noise.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (43)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

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This word has been looked up 166 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

begin ·  run ·  move ·  go ·  stop ·  series ·  break ·  result ·  turn ·  call ·  event ·  show

Used in the same contextWord Family

start:   starting ·  started ·  starts
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English sterten, to move or leap suddenly, from Old English *styrtan; see ster-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. English dial. also stcrt, sturt; from Middle English starten, sterten, stirten, styrten (preterit sterte, stirtc, sturtc, storte, stert, later start, past participle stcrt, slirt, y-stert), prob. from Anglo-Saxon *styrtan (not found) = Middle Dutch, Dutch storten = Middle Low German storten = Old High German sturzan, Middle High German G. stürzen, fall. start, = Swedish störta (Swedish dial. stjärta, run wildly about) = Danish styrte, cast down, ruin, fall dead; root unknown. The explanation given by Skeat, that the word meant orig. ‘turn tail,’ or ‘show the tail,’ hence turn over suddenly, from Anglo-Saxon steort, etc., a tail (see start), is untenable. Hence startle.
  2. from Middle English stert; from start, v.
  3. Early modern English also stert; from Middle English start, stert, stirt, steort, from Anglo-Saxon steort = OFries. stert, stirt = Middle Dutch steert, Dutch staart = Middle Low German Low German stert, steert, staart, steerd = Middle High German G. sterz = Icelandic stertr = Swedish Danish stjert, tail; root unknown; some derive it from the root of start, in the sense ‘project’ or ‘turn’; others compare Greek στόρθυγξ, Middle Greek στόρθη, a point, tine, tag of hair, etc.
 

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