starter

Etymology

start + -er

noun

1. Someone who starts, or who starts something.
   1. The person who starts a race by firing a gun or waving a flag.
   2. (baseball) A starting pitcher.
   3. (golf) A person employed to take new players to the first tee at suitable intervals, and to provide them with caddies and equipment.
2. Something that starts something.
   1. An electric motor that starts an internal combustion engine.
   2. A device that initiates the flow of high voltage electricity in a fluorescent lamp.
   3. A yeast culture used to start a fermentation process.
3. Something with which to begin; a first property, etc.
   It's small, but it's a good starter house.
4. The first course of a meal, consisting of a small, usually savoury, dish.
5. (team sports) A player in the lineup of players that a team fields at the beginning of a game.
6. A dog that rouses game.
7. (historical, Britain) A short length of rope formerly used for casual chastisement in the Navy.
8. (rail transport) A railway signal controlling the starting of trains from a station or some other location, more fully called a starter signal or starting signal.
   The colour-light signals admitting directly to the platforms and the inner starters (for short-length departures well up the platforms) are two-aspect, while those immediately beyond them are three-aspect, but elsewhere four-aspect signals have been installed in association with route indicators. 1961 March, “The new Glasgow Central signalbox”, in Trains Illustrated, page 179