start in on

Idioms  

1. Begin doing something, as in We started right in on the repairs . Also see start in .

2. Attack, especially verbally, as in Nancy keeps starting in on Carl, complaining about the errors in his work . [Early 1900s]

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Example Sentences

Stop down for a 20-minute meditation break I’ll usually meditate for a second time before I start in on cooking or whatever the evening’s activities are going to be.

From Los Angeles Times

A lot of my gay friends, particularly the eccentric ones, will say the same thing, because when you’re walking down the street looking weird, you never know who might start in on you.

From Los Angeles Times

Watching it unfold, Bermann said she had been reminded of lines from “The Human Stain” by Philip Roth: “The danger with hatred is, once you start in on it, you get a hundred times more than you bargained for. Once you start, you can’t stop.”

From Seattle Times

He was already starring in big international productions that made little use of his talents, and he was about to start in on the television work that would occupy much of the last two decades of his career.

From New York Times

But this year we’ve also had fires in California so vast that their smoke turned the sky an eerie orange in the San Francisco Bay area; punishing heat waves in many parts of the country; a devastating derecho in Iowa; and so many Atlantic hurricanes that those in charge of such things ran out of A-to-Z names and had to start in on the Greek alphabet for the surplus.

From Washington Post

Related Words

• bedevil
• beleaguer
• besiege
• embarrass
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