begin has definitions from the field of politics
1
[ verb ] take the first step or steps in carrying out an action

Examples

: "We began working at dawn" "Who will start?" "Get working as soon as the sun rises!" "The first tourists began to arrive in Cambodia" "He began early in the day"

Used in print

(Musical America, LXXXI:5...)

But time is running_out , and many_of Stravinsky 's admirers begin to fear that he will never find terra_firma .

(Norman Kent, "The Watercolor Art of Roy M. Mason"...)

What I have observed time_and_time_again is a process of integration , integration that begins as abstract design and gradually takes_on recognizable form ; color patterns that are made to weave throughout the whole composition ; and that over_all , amazing control of large washes which is the Mason stylemark .

(Sports Age, 24:9...)

Here you begin to appreciate the scope of the challenges and possibilities facing the industry .

(Philip Reaves, "Who Rules the Marriage Bed?"...)

And she begins to regard him as savage , bestial and unworthy .

To win her favors , her husband first took an additional job , then desperately began to embezzle from his employer .

2
[ verb ] have a beginning, in a temporal, spatial, or evaluative sense

Synonyms

start

Examples

: "The DMZ begins right over the hill" "The second movement begins after the Allegro" "Prices for these homes start at $250,000"

Used in print

(The Times-Picayune, [New Orleans],...)

Within an easy walk from Capitol_Hill where Pennsylvania_Avenue comes together with Constitution_Avenue , begins a series of great federal buildings , some a block long and all about seven-stories high .

(Chicago Daily Tribune...)

The Chicago_Press club will fete George_E._Barnes , president_of_the_United_States Lawn_Tennis association , at a cocktail_party and buffet supper beginning at 5 : 30 p. m. tomorrow .

(Rocky Mountain News, [Denver, Colorado]...)

Beginning July 4 , there will be an orchestra playing nightly except Sunday and Monday for the summer season .

(The Detroit News...)

The jail sentence is to begin the day after Sarkees graduates from Eastern High_School in June .

(The Atlanta Constitution...)

The COAHR letter comes on the eve of a large gathering of theater managers and owners scheduled to begin here Sunday .

3
[ verb ] get off the ground

Examples

"Who started this company?" "We embarked on an exciting enterprise" "I start my day with a good breakfast" "The afternoon session begins at 4 PM" "The blood shed started when the partisans launched a surprise attack"

Used in print

(Douglas Ashford, "Elections in Morocco: Progress...)

Preparation began slightly more than a year after independence with the first_steps to organize rural communes .

Voting preparations began in the fall of 1959 , although the actual demarcation and planning for the rural communes was completed in 1958 .

Voter registration began in late November 1959 and continued until early January , 1960 .

(Robert A. Futterman, The Future of Our Cities....)

The big factories which are relatively near the centers of our cities - the rubber factories in Akron , Chrysler 's Detroit plants , U._S._Steel 's Pittsburgh works - often began on these sites at_a_time when that was the edge of the city , yet close to transport ( river ) , storage ( piers ) and power ( river ) .

4
[ verb ] set in motion, cause to start

Examples

"The U.S. started a war in the Middle East" "The Iraqis began hostilities" "begin a new chapter in your life"

Used in print

(Jaroslav Pelikan, The Shape of Death: life, death and...)

With this act of disobedience , and not with the inception of his individual existence , man began the downward circuit on the spiral of history , descending from the created capacity for immortality to an inescapable mortality .

(Mr. America, 4:6...)

You should also begin this exercise with a very light barbell until you become accustomed to it balance_wise .

(J. W. C. Hagstrom et al., "Debilitating muscular...)

In an attempt to reverse the downhill trend by stimulating the bone_marrow and controlling any hemolytic component , triamcinolone , 16 mg. daily , was begun on Sept. 26 , 1958 , and continued until Feb. 18 , 1959 .

(Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy....)

Discovering that draperies could be designed to serve structural purposes , he began a study of the anatomy of folds .

(John Cheever, "The Brigadier and the Golf Widow,"...)

I would not want to be one of those writers who begin each morning by exclaiming , `` O Gogol , O Chekhov , O Thackeray and Dickens , what would you have made_of a bomb_shelter ornamented with four plaster-of-Paris ducks , a birdbath , and three composition gnomes with long beards and red mobcaps '' ?

5
[ verb ] begin to speak or say

Examples

"Now listen, friends," he began

Used in print

(Joseph Chadwick, No Land Is Free....)

`` Now , listen '' - Macklin began .

Related terms

talk

6
[ verb ] begin to speak, understand, read, and write a language

Examples

"She began Russian at an early age" "We started French in fourth grade"

7
[ verb ] begin an event that is implied and limited by the nature or inherent function of the direct object

Synonyms

start

Examples

"begin a cigar" "She started the soup while it was still hot" "We started physics in 10th grade"

Related terms

act

8
[ noun ] (politics) Israeli statesman (born in Russia) who (as prime minister of Israel) negotiated a peace treaty with Anwar Sadat (then the president of Egypt) (1913-1992)

Synonyms

menachem_begin

Related terms

statesman

9
[ verb ] have a beginning, of a temporal event

Examples

"WWII began in 1939 when Hitler marched into Poland" "The company's Asia tour begins next month"

Related terms

be

10
[ verb ] have a beginning characterized in some specified way

Synonyms

start

Examples

"The novel begins with a murder" "My property begins with the three maple trees" "Her day begins with a work-out" "The semester begins with a convocation ceremony"

Related terms

be start

11
[ verb ] be the first item or point, constitute the beginning or start, come first in a series

Examples

"The number "one" begins the sequence" "A terrible murder begin the novel" "The convocation ceremony officially begins the semester"

Related terms

beginning

12
[ noun ] Last name, frequency rank in the U.S. is 8329
13
[ verb ] achieve or accomplish in the least degree, usually used in the negative

Examples

: "This economic measure doesn't even begin to deal with the problem of inflation" "You cannot even begin to understand the problem we had to deal with during the war"

Related terms

achieve

*