racing start
- noun
- At exactly 10 AM, the racing start gun fired, and the competitors surged forward.
Examples
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The runners were nervous as they waited for the racing start signal.
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The referee announced that the racing start would take place after a brief delay.
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So when does the racing start?
Fiction book (2001)
Synonyms
The time or place when something begins
The official start of an event or activity
The place or time where an event begins
The planned time when something begins
A sound or light that shows the start of a race
The first moment when a race or event begins
How Quick
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the moment at which a race officially begins' is directly derivable from combining 'racing' (the activity of racing) with 'start' (the beginning or signal). This is a straightforward noun–noun composition following regular English patterns and is cross-linguistically recognizable, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
The noun racing start comes from the real picture at a race: runners crouch and wait for a signal so the racing action and the start happen at the same moment. That's why it means the exact moment a race 'begins'.