Word.ws English Dictionary

kick start

kick start noun: a metal bar on a motorcycle used to start its engine.

kick start: a metal bar on a motorcycle used to start its engine
Image: CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

kick start (plural kick starts)

  1. A metal bar on a motorcycle used to start its engine.
  2. An act of starting a motorcycle by quickly depressing the kick start with one's foot.
    • The motorcycle requires a kick start.
  3. (figuratively) A fast or strong start; help with starting or beginning well.
    • As a kick start for the group, let's write up some ideas.
  4. An impetus that starts or restarts some process.

Verb

kick start (third-person singular simple present kick starts, present participle kick starting, simple past and past participle kick started)

  1. (transitive) To start a motorcycle.
    • He kick started the motorcycle and took off.
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To start or begin strongly or quickly.
    • To kick start your learning, let's summarize the basics.
    • Kick start your day with a hearty breakfast.
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To make (something) active, functional, or productive again; to reinvigorate (an activity, system, or process).
    • To kick start the economy with a large construction project.
    • The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that global consumption of coal power[…] would reach record levels in 2021 driven by a surge in demand for energy to kickstart global economies following the coronavirus pandemic.2022 January 17, Jillian Ambrose, “China’s coal production hit record levels in 2021”, in The Guardian

Synonyms of kick start

Forms of kick start

Noun
pluralkick starts
alternative formkickstart
alternative formkick-start
Verb
third-person singular presentkick starts
present participlekick starting
past participlekick started
pastkick started

Origin of kick start

From kick + start. Compare push-start.

Questions about kick start

What does kick start mean?
Kick start means a metal bar on a motorcycle used to start its engine.
What part of speech is kick start?
Kick start can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of kick start?
The plural of kick start is kick starts.

Words near kick start in the dictionary

  1. kick someone's arse
  2. kick someone's ass
  3. kick someone's butt
  4. kick space
  5. kick spaces
  6. kick start
  7. kick started
  8. kick starting
  9. kick starts
  10. kick tail
  11. kick the beam

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kick start (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “kick start.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kick_start. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.