starting gate
noun
any of various types of movable barriers for lining up and giving an equal start to the entries in a horse or dog race.
Nearby words
start-up, starter, starter home, starters, starting block, starting gate, starting grid, starting handle, starting price, starting rate, starting stalls
Origin of starting gate
First recorded in 1895–1900
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for starting gate
In short, I feel put on the spot, and come up lame right out of the starting-gate.
Fear And Self-Loathing In Scandinavia: The Fiction Of Karl Ove Knausgaard|Ted Gioia|May 28, 2014|DAILY BEASTThen, amid a murmur of excitement, the starting-gate went up, and the horses were off.
Adrien Leroy|Charles GarviceSo, perfectly calm and very much bored, he danced to the starting-gate on the chestnut filly.
Through a maze of heat, a half-mile distant, at the starting-gate, little spots of color moved in impatient circles.
The Man Who Could Not Lose|Richard Harding Davis
British Dictionary definitions for starting gate
starting gate
noun
a movable barrier so placed on the starting line of a racecourse that the raising of it releases all the contestants simultaneously
the US name for starting stalls
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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