Word.ws English Dictionary

started up

started up is the simple past and past participle of start up.

Meaning of start up

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive) To rise suddenly.
    • He started up when he heard the scream.
  2. (transitive) To commence the operation of; to activate; to launch.
    • The four of them started up a law practice.
  3. (intransitive) To begin to operate.
    • The engine started up right away.
  4. (colloquial, intransitive) To begin.
    • The band started up playing.
  5. (intransitive) To begin to make a sound
    • First a solitary blackbird started up, but soon the whole forest was alive with birdsong.

Questions about started up

What is started up the simple past and past participle of?
Started up is the simple past and past participle of start up.

Words near started up in the dictionary

  1. started on
  2. started on at
  3. started out
  4. started over
  5. started the ball rolling
  6. started up
  7. started up on
  8. started with a clean sheet
  9. started with a clean sheet of paper
  10. started with a clean slate
  11. starter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: started up (page history and authors); start up (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: “started up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/started_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.