BEGIN • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Begin

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/bɪgˈɪn/ Listen

verb

Begin v. t.

(past & past part. began, begun; pres. part. beginning) To enter on; to commence. "Ye nymphs of Solyma! begin the song."

To trace or lay the foundation of; to make or place a beginning of. "The apostle begins our knowledge in the creatures, which leads us to the knowledge of God."

Synonyms: To commence; originate; set about; start.

Begin v. i. (past & past part. began, begun; pres. part. beginning)

To have or commence an independent or first existence; to take rise; to commence. "Vast chain of being! which from God began."

To do the first act or the first part of an action; to enter upon or commence something new, as a new form or state of being, or course of action; to take the first step; to start. "Tears began to flow." "When I begin, I will also make an end."

noun

Begin n. Beginning. (Poetic & Obs.)

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Etymology of 'Begin'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Begin" Quotes from Famous Books

... Grosart will probably be of greater weight than the foul narrative of a Palladian memoir-maker, who has not produced her documents. From this date it follows that in the year 1636 Thomas Vaughan was still in the schoolboy period, not even of sufficient age to begin a college career. He could not, as alleged, have visited Fludd, the illustrious Kentish mystic, in London, nor would he have been ripe for initiation, supposing that Fludd could have dispensed it. In like manner, Andreae, assuming ...

— Devil-Worship in France - or The Question of Lucifer • Arthur Edward Waite

... I desire to sweep off my old friends with the old year and begin the new with a clean record. It is a measure absolutely necessary. The snake does not put on his new skin over the old one. He sloughs off the first, before he dons the second. He would be a very clumsy serpent, if he did ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, Number 59, September, 1862 • Various

... was a daisy at word-slinging, Charley was—better'n most auctioneers. Then they come along together back to the bar-room—where the cloth was off the table, and the cards and chips out, ready for business to begin. All the boys was jammed in there—Nosey Green with his face tied up like he had a toothache, so it didn't show who he was—waiting to see what more was coming; and they was about busting with the laughs they had inside 'em, and ready to play close ...

— Santa Fe's Partner - Being Some Memorials of Events in a New-Mexican Track-end Town • Thomas A. Janvier

... would not do to be saddled with Jock in the city, where it might be necessary for him to begin a new career immediately; so he gently broke the difficulties ...

— The Lilac Sunbonnet • S.R. Crockett

... to begin upon the stroke of the hour, and as the time approached Hughie could be heard running his fingers over the keys, although the curtains had not yet been drawn back. By this time there was no longer standing room ...

— The Black Pearl • Mrs. Wilson Woodrow

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