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Synonyms

start out

British  

verb

  1. to set out on a journey

  2. to take the first steps, as in life, one's career, etc

    he started out as a salesman

  3. to take the first actions in an activity in a particular way or specified aim

    they started out wanting a house, but eventually bought a flat
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
start out Idioms  

  1. Set out on a trip, as in The climbers started out from base camp shortly after mid-night. [Early 1900s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Things started out spectacularly for the combined company.

From Barron's

How different was this small company from the one that had started out so bravely this morning.

From Literature

Then it would start out with small disguised-as-almost-friendly-up-to-nothing-in-particular questions like, “What if Claire isn’t quite as completely evil and nasty as you thought, Ida B?”

From Literature

Anxiety about expenses and market volatility are real for many people starting out in retirement.

From MarketWatch

Emily had started out a few weeks earlier as an innocent little thunderstorm in Ethiopia.

From Literature

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.