starting gun
2
3.7
- noun
- /ˈstɑrtɪŋ ɡʌn/
:
pistola de salida
- As soon as the starting gun went off, the crowd erupted in cheers and the runners took off.
- starting gun fired
- starting gun went off
Examples
-
Robert, they just fired a starting gun.
-
An hour and several yoga poses later, the starting gun went off.
Blog text (27) -
If I go back to bed, chances are high that I'll wind up waking up well after the starting gun has gone off.
Blog text (27) -
The starting gun went off, and the riders followed, leaving the screaming fans in a cloud of dust.
Fiction book (1999) -
At the crack of the starting gun, she surged into the air like a tornado.
Fiction book (1998) -
Seconds before the starting gun, an NBC announcer described how Blake positions his feet in the blocks.
Blog text (24) -
The starting gun went off a little later than scheduled, but as competitors warmed up on the shore of icy Lake Pehoe, nobody seemed to mind.
Blog text (3) -
When the starting gun fired, the athletes launched themselves forward in a burst of energy.
-
The loud sound of the starting gun signaled the beginning of the marathon.
Synonyms
154
4.4
The firing of a weapon used to start a race or give a salute
1
3.5
A sound or light that shows the start of a race
How Realistic
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a gun fired to signal the beginning of a race' is directly and compositionally derived from 'starting' (initial/beginning) + 'gun' (firearm/shot), following a transparent noun-noun pattern. This construction is cross-linguistically common (e.g., French 'pistolet de départ', Spanish 'pistola de salida'), so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
The noun starting gun comes from races where a real gun was fired to tell runners to start running. So, the phrase means 'the official start' of a race or any timed event.