starting

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of start.

   The marathon is starting in ten minutes near the harbor.

   Starting over after a setback takes real courage.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs. After a form of be it builds the progressive (the race is starting); at the head of a noun phrase it is a gerund (starting over takes courage). Because start works both with and without an object, the same progressive can name the doer or the thing begun: she is starting the engine, and the engine is starting.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act or process of something beginning.

   The starting of the new engine produced a loud, steady rumble.

   Bad weather forced a delay in the starting of the ferry service.

   Similarbeginning, commencement, launch, ignition

   Oppositeend, stopping

   Note

   The noun can be counted and made plural, which the gerund cannot. Constant startings and stoppings describes repeated, separate acts, each one its own beginning. The noun usually takes the and an of-phrase (the starting of the ferry service). It pairs naturally with stoppings when the point is stop-and-go interruption rather than a single launch.

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