starter

[stahr-ter]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR starter ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a person or thing that starts.

a person who gives the signal to begin, as for a race, the running of a train, bus, elevator, etc.

a device that starts an internal-combustion engine without a need for cranking by hand.

a person or thing that starts in a race or contest: Only five starters finished the race.

a culture of bacteria used to start a particular fermentation, as in the manufacture of cheese, buttermilk, sour cream, etc.

Cookery. sourdough(def 1).

Slang. a shill, as at a gaming table in a casino.

Cribbage. the card turned face up on the stack before the play.

adjective

constituting a basis or beginning: a starter set of dishes; a starter home.

Idioms

for starters, Informal. as the first step or part; initially; first: We will have soup for starters. For starters, he doesn't even know how to drive.

Origin of starter

First recorded in 1530–40; start + -er¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for starter

Contemporary Examples of starter

Here's a starter figure, though: the CBO expects Obamacare to reduce labor force participation by about 800,000.
Obamacare: Job Killer or Entrepreneurial Turbocharger?
Megan McArdle
June 5, 2013
I came here with a movie, Starter for 10 [2006], because Tom Hanks produced it and his company brought us out here.
Alice Eve, the Beautiful New Trekkie, Talks ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’
Marlow Stern
May 18, 2013
I was talking with Benedict Cumberbatch last week about Hawking and Starter for 10.
Alice Eve, the Beautiful New Trekkie, Talks ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’
Marlow Stern
May 18, 2013
Paul is an author herself with three books, including Parenting, Inc. and The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony.
Pamela Paul Talks Future of New York Times Book Review
Steve Kettmann
April 12, 2013
They got a young big name quarterback who wants to be the starter.
The Broncos Sell Their Future: Tim Tebow Heads to New York Jets
Allen Barra
March 21, 2012

Historical Examples of starter

The Starter made answer with a smile of good-humored tolerance.
Thoroughbreds
W. A. Fraser
What could be more noble than the start and the starter of Christianity?
The Stark Munro Letters
J. Stark Munro
For a starter, then, takin' your say-so for it, you're a Southern man?'
Faro Nell and Her Friends
Alfred Henry Lewis
Opened an account in my name, and fatted it up good and sweet, as a starter.
Shorty McCabe
Sewell Ford
She was fussing with the starter by this time, but she smiled up at him and shook her head.
Quin
Alice Hegan Rice

British Dictionary definitions for starter

starter

noun

a device for starting an internal-combustion engine, usually consisting of a powerful electric motor that engages with the flywheelFormerly called self-starter

US a person who organizes the timely departure of buses, trains, etc

a person who supervises and signals the start of a race

a competitor who starts in a race or contest

informal, mainly Australian and NZ an acceptable or practicable proposition, plan, idea, etc

Australian and NZ informal a person who is willing to engage in a particular activity

a culture of bacteria used to start fermentation, as in making cheese or yogurt

mainly British the first course of a meal

(modifier) designed to be used by a novicea starter kit

for starters slang in the first place

under starter's orders

(of horses in a race) awaiting the start signal
(of a person) eager or ready to begin

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

Word Origin and History for starter

c.1400, stertour "instigator; one who starts," agent noun from start (v.). For starters "to begin with" is 1873, American English colloquial. Starter home is from 1976; starter set is from 1946, originally of china.