Word.ws English Dictionary

starting gates

starting gates is the plural of starting gate.

Meaning of starting gate

Noun

starting gate (plural starting gates)

  1. (dog racing) A machine used to ensure a fair start in horse or dog racing by opening doors to allow all the racing animals out at the same time.
    • Mobile starting-gates and horse-boxes stand parked along the kerbs, and behind every large house, it seems, is a red brick stableyard, gleaming with fresh black-and-white paint and polished steel.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 164
  2. (figuratively) The beginning.

Questions about starting gates

What is starting gates the plural of?
Starting gates is the plural of starting gate.

Words near starting gates in the dictionary

  1. starting five
  2. starting fives
  3. starting fluid
  4. starting fluids
  5. starting gate
  6. starting gates
  7. starting grid
  8. starting grids
  9. starting gun
  10. starting guns
  11. starting handle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: starting gates (page history and authors); starting gate (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: “starting gates.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/starting_gates. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.