jump-start

Formsjump-starts, jump-starting, jump-started

Pluraljump-starts

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To start a vehicle with a dead battery by connecting it with jumper cables to another power source, such as a charged battery in another car.

   The mechanic jump-started the sedan after its lights had been left on all night.

   If your engine won't turn over, a neighbor can usually jump-start it in minutes.

   Similarboost

   Note

   The literal, mechanical sense the figurative uses borrow from. It is transitive: you jump-start the car, the truck or its engine, and the hyphen stays in every form (jump-starts, jump-starting, jump-started). Boost means the same here. The help comes from outside, a second car's charged battery or a purpose-made device called a hotshot, and that borrowed spark is what the "reactivate" meaning carries over to anything needing revival.

2. 2
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To bring something back to life or activity, giving fresh energy to a process, effort, or organization that has stalled.

   The tax cuts were intended to jump-start the sluggish economy.

   A surprise hit single jump-started her stalled music career.

   Similarreactivate, boost

   Note

   Here the stalled thing is an economy, a campaign or a career rather than an engine, and the verb keeps the picture of the battery sense: a jolt from outside that gets something moving again. NoViolet Bulawayo's Glory (2022) speaks of needing credit to jump-start the economy. Kick start is its close rival. Both suggest a sudden push, not the slow renewal that rejuvenate can imply.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   The procedure or outcome of getting a vehicle with a dead battery running by drawing current from another source.

   A quick jump-start was all the old pickup needed to get going.

   Roadside assistance plans usually cover jump-starts and flat tires.

   Similarboost

   Note

   The noun is most at home in a request: could you give me a jump-start? In that construction the stranded driver takes the place of the car, as if the person rather than the vehicle needed reviving. The plural, jump-starts, is common when the procedure is spoken of as a routine service.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A premature start in a race, when a competitor begins moving before the official starting signal.

   The official flagged a jump-start and ordered the runners back to the blocks.

   Repeated jump-starts forced officials to reset the race.

   Note

   A sports word with nothing to do with batteries. It describes the competitor who goes before the signal. False start is the usual name for the fault. Jumped start and jumped-start are close variants, and flier, also spelled flyer, is another name for the same thing. In timed events such as track and swimming, it names an infraction that officials penalize, not merely an early movement.

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