Word.ws English Dictionary

starts up

starts up is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 starts up

What is starts up the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Starts up is the third-person singular simple present indicative of start up.

Words near starts up in the dictionary

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

Source and license

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