Synonyms:
get_down, begin, get, start_out, start, set_about, set_out, commence
Meaning: take the first step or steps in carrying out an action; "We began working at dawn"; "Who will start?"; "Get working as soon as the sun rises!"; "The first tourists began to arrive in Cambodia"; "He began early in the day"; "Let's get down to work now"
Synonyms:
begin, lead_off, start, commence
Meaning: set in motion, cause to start; "The U.S. started a war in the Middle East"; "The Iraqis began hostilities"; "begin a new chapter in your life"
Synonyms:
start, start_up, embark_on, commence
Meaning: get off the ground; "Who started this company?"; "We embarked on an exciting enterprise"; "I start my day with a good breakfast"; "We began the new semester"; "The afternoon session begins at 4 PM"; "The blood shed started when the partisans launched a surprise attack"
Usage examples
"And when will you commence the exercise of your function?"
'He has a remarkable head-voice, and will commence as a chorister.
We accordingly determined to commence our journey towards the north at the expiration of another month.
He tried to express his gratitude, but could only do so by evincing his willingness to commence work at once.
At length, however, they were within half a mile of us, and I thought we might now fairly commence operations.
He says that I must commence riding horseback at once, and has generously offered me the use of one of his horses.
One of the first lessons, for instance, that a depositor should learn before he is qualified to own a check-book is to commence writing the amount as near as possible to the extreme left of the check.
At other times, she would spring into the stream, perhaps up to the neck, and commence fishing on her own account, by feeling with her paws below all the banks, working as hard and as eagerly as any bare-legged school-boy.
I determined to commence a series of covert insinuations, or innuendoes, about the oblong box--just to let him perceive, gradually, that I was not altogether the butt, or victim, of his little bit of pleasant mystification.
But if you have to do with one of those people who, possessed with a mania of discussion, commence by contradicting before they hear, and who are always ready to sustain the contrary opinion, yield to him; you will have nothing to gain with him.