Word.ws English Dictionary

starting up

starting up is the present participle and gerund 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 starting up

What is starting up the present participle and gerund of?
Starting up is the present participle and gerund of start up.

Words near starting up in the dictionary

  1. starting signal
  2. starting signals
  3. starting the ball rolling
  4. starting time
  5. starting times
  6. starting up
  7. starting up on
  8. starting with a clean sheet
  9. starting with a clean sheet of paper
  10. starting with a clean slate
  11. startingly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: starting 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: “starting up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/starting_up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.