start1 (start)

[E. dial. also stert, sturt; at the sight. The sesoun priketh every gentil herte, And maketh him out of his slepe to sterte . Chaucer, Knight's Tale, 1. 186. He is now grown wondrous sad, weeps often too, Talks of his brother to himself, starts strangely. Fletcher, Mad Lover, v. 2. With trial fire touch me his finger-end; but if he start , It is the flesh of a corrupted heart. Shak., M. W. of W., v. 5. 90. 2. To make a sudden or unexpected change of place or position; rise abruptly or quickly; spring; leap, dart, or rush with sudden quickne : as, to start aside, backward, forward, out, or up; to start from one's seat. Up stirte the pardoner and that anon. Chaucer, Prol. to Wife of Bath's Tale, 1. 163. Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres. Shak., Hamlet, 1. 5. 17. The Captain started up suddenly, his Hair standing at an End. Howell , Letters, I. iv. 28. 3. To set out; begin or enter upon action, course, career, or pursuit, as a journey or a race. At once they start , advancing in a line. Dryden, Æneid, v. 183. All being ready, we started in a caique very early in the morning. R. Curzon, Monast. in the Levant, p. 294. 41. To run; escape; get away. Ac thre thynges ther beoth that doth a man to sterte Out of his owene hous as holy writ sheweth. Piers Plowman (C), xx. 297. When I have them, I'll place those guards upon them, that they start not. B. Jonson, Cat i line, iv. 6. 5. To lose hold; give way; swerve aside; be dislocated or moved from an intended position or direction; spring: as, the ship's timbers started. The best bow may start, And the hand vary. B. Jonson, New Inn, ii. 2. 6. To fall off or out; loosen and come away, as the baleen of a dead whale through decomposition, or hair from a soured pelt. To start after, set out in pursuit of. To start against, to become engaged in opposition to; oppose. To start in, to begin. [Colloq., U. S.]-To start out. (a) To set forth, as on a journey or enterprise. (b) To begin; set out; as, he started out to be a lawyer. - To start up. (a) To rise suddenly, as from a seat or couch; come suddenly into notice or importance. The mind very often sets itself on work in search of some hidden idea, though sometimes too they start up in our minds of their own accord. Locke, Human Understanding, II. x. 7. (b) To begin operation or busine : as, the factory will start up to-morrow. [Colloq.] however, of vegetable origin, being the common nostoc. I have seen a good quantity of that jelly that is sometimes found on the ground, and by the vulgar called a star-shoot, as if it remained upon the extinction of a falling star. Boyle, Works, I. 244. star-slough (stär's luf), n. Same as star - shoot . star-spangled (stär's pang"gld), a. Spotted or spangled with stars: as, the star - spangled banner, the national flag of the United States. Thou, friendly Night, That wide o'er Heaven's star - spangled plain Holdest thy awful reign. Potter , tr. of Æschylus (ed. 1779), II. 333. ( Jodrell .) The star- spangled banner, O long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! F. S. Key , The Star-Spangled Banner. star-spotted (stär's pot" ed), a. Spotted or studded with stars.