start up

1. 1.

   get going or set in motion

   “We simply could not start the engine”

   “start up the computer”

   Synonymsstart

   Narrowerkick-starthot-wirerestartcrankjumpstart
2. 2.

   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”

   Synonymsstartembark oncommence

   Broaderbegin

   Narrowerinaugurateopen

Questions about start up

What does start up mean?

start up means "get going or set in motion". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for start up?

Close synonyms include start, start, embark on, commence. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is start up a common word?

start up is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.