noun

• Someone who starts, or who starts something.
• The person who starts a race by firing a gun or waving a flag.
• (baseball) A starting pitcher.
• (golf) A person employed to take new players to the first tee at suitable intervals, and to provide them with caddies and equipment.
• Something that starts something.
• An electric motor that starts an internal combustion engine.
• A device that initiates the flow of high voltage electricity in a fluorescent lamp.
• A yeast culture used to start a fermentation process.
• Something with which to begin; a first property, etc.
• The first course of a meal, consisting of a small, usually savoury, dish.
• (team sports) A player in the lineup of players that a team fields at the beginning of a game.
• A dog that rouses game.
• (historical, Britain) A short length of rope formerly used for casual chastisement in the Navy.
• (rail transport) A railway signal controlling the starting of trains from a station or some other location, more fully called a starter signal or starting signal.