Also 6 sterter, startar. [f. START v. + -ER1.] One who or something that starts. I. In intransitive senses of the verb.
† 1. One who ‘starts’ or goes away. Chiefly in phr. to be no starter. a. A deserter from a principle or cause; one who is given to ‘starting’ from or abandoning his purposes; a fickle or inconstant person. b. One given to wandering; one that cannot abide long in one spot. c. One who runs away, a flincher, coward, shirker. Obs.
a. 1536. Starkey, Lett., in Life & Lett. (1871), p. xxxix. From thys truthe you schal fynd me my lord to be no sterter, wauerar nor hengar in the wynd.
1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer, IV. (1577), Y iij b. I recken him a waueryng starter.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXIX. v. 373. He advised the Generall, who of his owne disposition was no starter, but constant and resolute, That [etc.].
1680. Reflect. late Libel on Curse-ye-Meroz, 28. The Author had (in all probability) been Lecturer there at this day, (for he is no Starter, nor Shifter, nor Swapper of Livings.)
a. 1704. T. Brown, Sat. Fr. King, Wks. 1730, I. 59. Were I thy confessor,… Dost think that I’d allow thee any quarter? No—thou should’st find what ’tis to be a starter.
b. 1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 57. Canst thou prefer a stranger before thy countryman? a starter before thy companion?
1600. Heywood, If you know not me (1605), C 4 b. Nay, nay, you need not bolt & locke so fast, Shee is no starter.
c. 1613. Middleton, No Wit like Woman’s, V. i. 226. My miseries are no starters; when they come, Stick longer by me.
1621. J. Taylor (Water P.), Praise Beggery, C 3 b. A Lowse … She’s not a starter like the dust-bred-Flea.
1705. Dunton, Life & Errors (1818), I. vii. 244. He was no starter, having lived forty years in the same house.
c. c. 1620. Fletcher & Mass., Double Marr., II. i. We’ll spare her our main top-sail, He shall not look us long, we are no starters.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. iii. 606. I’ll sooner Stand to it boldly, and take quarter, To let them see I am no starter.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v., I am no Starter; I shan’t flinch, or cry to go Home.
1731. C. D’Anvers, Pacification, 26, Poems 6.
| At length, St. Dunstan’s Clock struck One, | |
| And all the sober Cuffs were gone; | |
| The rest, who were inclined to stay, | |
| Call’d for a Bottle and to pay; | |
| The Doctor and the Bard made two, | |
| Who are no Starters, you all know. |
d. With adverb.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Errones, startars asyde, vagabundes.
2. One who starts or sets out in a race, on a journey; esp. a person, animal, yacht, etc., that is to start or has started in a race.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxxv. We are early starters in the dawn, even when we have the luck to have good beds to sleep in. Ibid. (1825), Fam. Lett., 18 July (1894), II. 310. I speak for security, for ladies are rarely early starters.
1847. Illustr. Lond. News, 10 July, 23/1. Yachts that would take up their station as starters.
1881. Daily News, 5 Aug., 6/4. In the Yawl Race the starters were Fleur de Lys, Curlew, Opal, Lizzie, Raven, and Arethusa.
1891. N. Gould, Double Event, xvii. 122. These [horses] comprised the six starters.
fig. 1860. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., xxiv. The private tutors [compared to Newmarket trainers] watch the examiners … to see what line they take … that they may handle the rest of their starters accordingly.
II. In transitive senses.
3. A person or animal that starts game.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 217. Strabo … speaking of the Conies of Spaine, and of their hunters and starters out of their holes.
1829. [J. L. Knapp], Jrnl. Naturalist (ed. 2), 247. In the evening … the wagtail resorts to the pastures, feeding under the very … noses of the cattle, who now become the starters of his game.
b. A dog trained for starting game. Also fig.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), VIII. 267. In short, Belford, thou wert an excellent starter and setter.
1754. Delany, Observ. Ld. Orrery’s Rem. Swift, 107. If he [Sheridan] was not the stanchest hound in the pack, he was at least the best starter.
1768. Pennant, Brit. Zool., I. 54. There were two varieties of this kind [of dog], the first used in hawking, to spring the game, which are the same with our starters.
4. The person who starts or initiates something.
1699. Bentley, Phal., Pref. 19. The Starters of this Calumny.
1729. Swift, Lett. on McCulla’s Project, Wks. 1905, VII. 184. Mr. McCulla, as being the first starter of the scheme, might be … rewarded by such a society.
1893. H. T. Fisher, in King’s Business, 385. An untold number of starters or converts of revivals.
5. One who gives the signal to start (in a race). Also, an official who gives the signal to start a train.
1622. in Hore’s Hist. Newmarket, (1885), I. 347. John Wagget onely the starter.
1852. Bentley’s Misc., XXXI. 120. The starter … drops his flag with the word ‘Go!’
1859. H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, xv. ‘Back, Velocipede; back, Lara!’ says the starter; down goes the flag, they dart away, [etc.].
1860. Ld. W. Lennox, Pict. Sporting Life, II. 23. ‘I shall give the words, One, two, three, and away,’ said the starter, placing me ten yards in advance.
1885. Manch. Exam., 7 April, 5/1. On a well-managed line there are starters and station officials to give the word of command.
6. An apparatus for starting a machine.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2310.
1909. Stage Year Bk., 56. The motor is controlled by a Siemens ironclad automatic starter.
7. (See quot.)
1908. J. P. Sheldon, Farm & Dairy (ed. 4), 76. The modern … method is to ripen the cream artificially by means of a pure culture of the lactic acid bacillus, technically called a ‘starter.’
Hence Startership.
1889. Star, 10 Jan., 3/5. When the vacancy for the startership to the Jockey Club occurred, Lord Marcus Beresford was appointed to succeed the late Mr. McGeorge.
