Verb

(es)

To throw, as a lance or dart; to hurl; to let fly; to send off, propel with force.

* 2011 , Stephen Budiansky, Perilous Fight: America's Intrepid War with Britain on the High Seas, 1812-1815 , page 323

There they were met by four thousand Ha'apa'a warriors, who launched a volley of stones and spears

(obsolete) To pierce with, or as with, a lance.

* 1591 , (Edmund Spenser), The Teares of the Muses

And launch your hearts with lamentable wounds.

To cause to move or slide from the land into the water; to set afloat.

*

Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.

* 1725–1726 , (Alexander Pope), Homer's Odyssey (translation), Book V

With stays and cordage last he rigged the ship, / And rolled on levers, launched her in the deep.

To send out; to start (one) on a career; to set going; to give a start to (something); to put in operation.

* 1649 , (Eikon Basilike)

All art is u?ed to ?ink Epi?copacy, & lanch Presbytery in England .

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=Here was my chance. I took the old man aside, and two or three glasses of Old Crow launched him into reminiscence.}}

* , chapter=13

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-09-07, volume=408, issue=8852, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Kill or cure , passage=On September 3rd Bionym, a Canadian firm, launched Nymi, a bracelet which detects the wearer’s heartbeat.}}

(often with out) To move with force and swiftness like a sliding from the stocks into the water; to plunge; to make a beginning.

* 1718 , (Matthew Prior), Solomon: On the Vanity of the World , Preface

In our language, Spen?er has not contented him?elf with this ?ubmi??ive manner of imitation : he launches out into very flowery paths

* 1969 , (Maya Angelou), I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , ch. 23:

My class was wearing butter-yellow pique dresses, and Momma launched out on mine. She smocked the yoke into tiny crisscrossing puckers, then shirred the rest of the bodice.

Verb

(en verb)

(label) To begin, commence, initiate.

# To set in motion.

#* (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)

I was engaged in conversation upon a subject which the people love to start in discourse.

#* , chapter=22

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.}}

# To begin.

#* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Peter Wilby)

, volume=189, issue=6, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Finland spreads word on schools , passage=Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.}}

# (senseid)To initiate operation of a vehicle or machine.

# To put or raise (a question, an objection); to put forward (a subject for discussion).

# To bring onto being or into view; to originate; to invent.

#* Sir (1628–1699)

Sensual men agree in the pursuit of every pleasure they can start .

To begin an activity.

* , chapter=1

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ 

To startle or be startled; to move or be moved suddenly.

# To jerk suddenly in surprise.

#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

But if he start , / It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.

#* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)

I start as from some dreadful dream.

#* (Isaac Watts) (1674-1748)

Keep your soul to the work when ready to start aside.

# To move suddenly from its place or position; to displace or loosen; to dislocate.

#* Wiseman

One, by a fall in wrestling, started the end of the clavicle from the sternum.

# To awaken suddenly.

#* (rfdate) (Mary Shelley)

I started from my sleep with horror

# To disturb and cause to move suddenly; to startle; to alarm; to rouse; to cause to flee or fly.

#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

Upon malicious bravery dost thou come / To start my quiet?

To break away, to come loose.

* 1749 , (John Cleland), (w) (Penguin 1985 reprint), page 66:

we could, with the greatest ease as well as clearness, see all objects (ourselves unseen) only by applying our eyes close to the crevice, where the moulding of a panel had warped or started a little on the other side.

(nautical) To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from.