starter
- 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.
- constituting a basis or beginning: a starter set of dishes; a starter home.
- 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
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.
I came here with a movie, Starter for 10 [2006], because Tom Hanks produced it and his company brought us out here.
I was talking with Benedict Cumberbatch last week about Hawking and Starter for 10.
Paul is an author herself with three books, including Parenting, Inc. and The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony.
They got a young big name quarterback who wants to be the starter.
Historical Examples of starter
The Starter made answer with a smile of good-humored tolerance.
ThoroughbredsW. A. Fraser
What could be more noble than the start and the starter of Christianity?
The Stark Munro LettersJ. Stark Munro
For a starter, then, takin' your say-so for it, you're a Southern man?'
Faro Nell and Her FriendsAlfred Henry Lewis
Opened an account in my name, and fatted it up good and sweet, as a starter.
Shorty McCabeSewell Ford
She was fussing with the starter by this time, but she smiled up at him and shook her head.
QuinAlice Hegan Rice
starter
- 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
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.