different between fit vs start

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Etymology 1

Possibly from Middle English fit (“an adversary of equal power”).

Adjective

fit (comparative fitter, superlative fittest)

1. Suitable, proper.
2. Adapted to a purpose or environment.
3. In good shape; physically well.

4. (Britain, informal, chiefly slang) Sexually attractive; good-looking; fanciable.
5. Prepared; ready.

   • So fit to shoot, she singled forth among her foes who first her quarry's strength should feel.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

fit (third-person singular simple present fits, present participle fitting, simple past and past participle fitted or fit)

1. (transitive) To be suitable for.
   • 1918, Richard Dennis Teall Hollister, Speech-making, publ. George Wahr, pg. 81:

     The speaker should be certain that his subject fits the occasion.

2. (transitive) To conform to in size and shape.

3. (intransitive) To be of the right size and shape
   • 2016 February 2, Kate Winslet & al., Jimmy Kimmel Live!

     Even though in a way you let him freeze to death in the water, because the way I see it...
     I agree. Y'know, I think he actually could have fitted on that bit of door.
     There was plenty of room on the raft.
     I know. I know, I know.

4. (transitive, with to) To make conform in size and shape.
   1. (transitive) To tailor; to change to the appropriate size.

5. (transitive) To be in agreement with.
6. (transitive) To adjust.

7. (transitive) To attach, especially when requiring exact positioning or sizing.
8. (transitive) To equip or supply.

9. (transitive) To make ready.
10. (intransitive, archaic) To be seemly.
11. To be proper or becoming.
12. (intransitive) To be in harmony.

Usage notes

• In senses 1 to 6, this is generally a stative verb that rarely takes the continuous inflection. See Category:English stative verbs

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

fit (plural fits)

1. The degree to which something fits.

2. Conformity of elements one to another.

3. The part of an object upon which anything fits tightly.
4. (advertising) Measure of how well a particular commercial execution captures the character or values of a brand.

5. (statistics) Goodness of fit.
6. (bridge) The quality of a partnership's combined holding of cards in a suit, particularly of trump.

Usage notes

Usually used in the singular preceded by an indefinite article and an adjective.

Translations

References

• (advertising): The Advertising Research Handbook Charles E. Young, Ideas in Flight, Seattle, Washington, April 2005

Etymology 2

Unknown, possibly from Old English fitt (“song”), or from the sense of fitted to length.

Noun

fit (plural fits)

1. (archaic) A section of a poem or ballad.
   • 1771, Samuel Johnson, "Letter to Bennet Langton, Esq. (March 20)," in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol 2:

     Dr. Percy has written a long ballad in many fits.

References

• Oxford English Dictionary: fit, fyte n. 1

Etymology 3

Unknown, possibly from Old English fitt (“conflict”).Probably cognate with Italian fitta (“pain, especially sudden and stabbing pain”).See more at Latin f?gere.

Noun

fit (plural fits)

1. A seizure or convulsion.

2. (medicine) A sudden and vigorous appearance of a symptom over a short period of time.
3. A sudden outburst of emotion.

   Synonyms: blowout, hissy, tantrum, spell, moment

4. A sudden burst (of an activity).

   Synonyms: flurry, frenzy, paroxysm

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

fit (third-person singular simple present fits, present participle fitting, simple past and past participle fitted)

1. (intransitive, medicine) To suffer a fit.
   • 2016, 18 May, Three dogs die and seven more ill after drinking from the same Kent lake amid contamination fears (in The Telegraph)

     A spokesman said: "It is believed they (the dogs) got into the lake and drank from it. They came out and started fitting. Shortly after that three of them died and vets are attempting to resuscitate the other one."

Etymology 4

Verb

fit

1. (African-American Vernacular, dated) Fought.
   • Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho

     Joshua fit the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down

Anagrams

• ITF, TIF, if't

Azerbaijani

Etymology

Of onomatopoetic origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [fit]

Noun

fit (definite accusative fiti, plural fitl?r)

1. whistle
2. siren (a device that makes a piercingly loud sound as an alarm or signal, or the sound from such a device)

Declension

Derived terms

• fit çalmaq (“to whistle”)

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?fit/
• Rhymes: -it

Adjective

fit (feminine fita, masculine plural fits, feminine plural fites)

1. fixed (of eyes, regard, etc.)

Noun

fit m (plural fits)

1. target

Chinese

Etymology

Borrowed from English fit.

Pronunciation

Adjective

fit

1. (Cantonese) fit (physically well; in good shape)

Czech

Adjective

fit

1. fit, healthy

Usage notes

• This adjective is indeclinable.

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?t

Adjective

fit (comparative fitter, superlative fitst)

1. fit (in good shape)

Inflection

French

Pronunciation

Verb

fit

1. third-person singular past historic of faire

German

Etymology

From English fit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Adjective

fit (comparative fitter, superlative am fittesten)

1. fit (in good physical shape)

Declension

Derived terms

• Fitmacher
• Fitness (rarely Fitheit)

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f??t/
• Rhymes: -??t

Noun

fit f (genitive singular fitjar, nominative plural fitjar)

1. (zoology) web, interdigital webbing, a membrane that connects the digits of an animal
2. (knitting) a casting on, casting on

Declension

Related terms

• breiðafit
• fitja
• fuglafit
• fuglsfit
• gullfit
• hundafit
• lykkjufit
• Halldórufit
• silfurfit
• skollafit
• sundfit

Further reading

• A deliberation on the word "fit" on the Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum ("Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies")

Latin

Verb

fit

1. third-person singular present passive indicative of faci?
2. third-person singular present active indicative of f??

Luxembourgish

Etymology

From English fit, probably through German fit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fit/
• Rhymes: -it

Adjective

fit (masculine fitten, neuter fit, comparative méi fit, superlative am fitsten)

1. fit (in good shape)

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse fit.

Noun

fit f (definite singular fita or fiti, indefinite plural fitjar or fiter, definite plural fitjane or fitene)

1. form removed with the spelling reform of 2012; superseded by fet

Old Norse

Noun

fit f (genitive fitjar, plural fitjar)

1. (zoology, anatomy) webbed foot (of swimming birds)
2. (zoology, anatomy) flippers (of a seal)
3. (landform) meadowland on the banks of a lake or river

Declension

References

• fit in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Scots

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

fit (plural fits)

1. foot
2. lower end (of a street, river, field etc)

Derived terms

• fitbaw

Verb

fit (third-person singular present fits, present participle fitin, past fitt, past participle fitt)

1. to foot

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Pronoun

fit

1. Doric form of what

Volapük

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [fit]

Noun

fit (nominative plural fits)

1. (male or female) fish (cold-blooded vertebrate)

Declension

Derived terms

See also

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /st??t/
• (General American) enPR: stärt, IPA^(key): /st??t/
• Rhymes: -??(?)t

Etymology 1

From Middle English stert, from the verb sterten (“to start, startle”). See below.

Noun

start (plural starts)

1. The beginning of an activity.

   The movie was entertaining from start to finish.
2. A sudden involuntary movement.

   He woke with a start.

   • 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, Olalla

     The sight of his scared face, his starts and pallors and sudden harkenings, unstrung me […]

3. The beginning point of a race, a board game, etc.

   Captured pieces are returned to the start of the board.

4. An appearance in a sports game, horserace, etc., from the beginning of the event.

   Jones has been a substitute before, but made his first start for the team last Sunday.
5. (horticulture) A young plant germinated in a pot to be transplanted later.
   • 2009, Liz Primeau, Steven A. Frowine, Gardening Basics For Canadians For Dummies

     You generally see nursery starts at garden centres in mid to late spring. Small annual plants are generally sold in four-packs or larger packs, with each cell holding a single young plant.

6. An initial advantage over somebody else; a head start.

   to get, or have, the start

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? German: Start

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English sterten (“to leap up suddenly, rush out”), from Old English styrtan (“to leap up, start”), from Proto-West Germanic *sturtijan (“to startle, move, set in motion”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ter- (“to be stiff”). Cognate with Old Frisian stirta (“to fall down, tumble”), Middle Dutch sterten (“to rush, fall, collapse”) (Dutch storten), Old High German sturzen (“to hurl, plunge, turn upside down”) (German stürzen), Old High German sterzan (“to be stiff, protrude”). More at stare.

Verb

start (third-person singular simple present starts, present participle starting, simple past and past participle started)

1. (transitive) To begin, commence, initiate.
   1. To set in motion.
      • April 2, 1716, Joseph Addison, Freeholder No. 30

        I was some years ago engaged in conversation with a fashionable French Abbe, upon a subject which the people of that kingdom love to start in discourse.
   2. To begin.
   4. To initiate operation of a vehicle or machine.

   5. To put or raise (a question, an objection); to put forward (a subject for discussion).
   6. To bring onto being or into view; to originate; to invent.
      • 1674, William Temple, letter to The Countess of Essex

        Sensual men agree in the pursuit of every pleasure they can start.

2. (intransitive) To begin an activity.
3. (intransitive) To have its origin (at), begin.

4. To startle or be startled; to move or be moved suddenly.
   1. (intransitive) To jerk suddenly in surprise.
      • I start as from some dreadful dream.

      • 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth With a Variety of Rules to Guard

        Keep your soul to the work when it is ready to start aside.

      • 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, XXXI:

        [...] The tempest's mocking elf / Points to the shipman thus the unseen shelf / He strikes on, only when the timbers start.

   2. (intransitive) To awaken suddenly.
   3. (transitive) To disturb and cause to move suddenly; to startle; to alarm; to rouse; to cause to flee or fly.
      • c. 1603, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act I, Scene i^[2]:

        [...]Upon malicious bravery dost thou come / To start my quiet?

   4. (transitive) To move suddenly from its place or position; to displace or loosen; to dislocate.
      • 1676, Richard Wiseman, Severall Chirurgical Treatises

        One, by a fall in wrestling, started the end of the clavicle from the sternon.

5. (intransitive) To break away, to come loose.
6. (transitive, sports) To put into play.
   • 2010, Brian Glanville, The Story of the World Cup: The Essential Companion to South Africa 2010, London: Faber and Faber, ?ISBN, page 361:

     The charge against Zagallo then is not so much that he started Ronaldo, but that when it should surely have been clear that the player was in no fit state to take part he kept him on.

7. (transitive, nautical) To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from.

8. (intransitive, euphemistic) To start one's periods (menstruation).

Usage notes

• In uses 1.1 and 1.2 this is a catenative verb that takes the infinitive (to) or the gerund (-ing) form. There is no change in meaning.
• For more information, see Appendix:English catenative verbs

Antonyms

• stop
• end

Derived terms

• astart
• start-up
• starter

Descendants

• ? Dutch: starten
• ? German: starten
• ? Norman: stèrter
• ? French: starter
• ? Icelandic: starta
• ? Faroese: starta
• ? Norwegian Bokmål: starte
• ? Norwegian Nynorsk: starta
• ? Swedish: starta
• ? Danish: starte
• ? Slovak: štartova?

Translations

See also

Etymology 3

From Middle English stert, start, from Old English steort, stert, from Proto-Germanic *stertaz (“tail”). Cognate with Dutch staart (“tail”), German Sterz (“tail, handle”), Swedish stjärt (“tail, arse”).

Noun

start (plural starts)

1. A tail, or anything projecting like a tail.
2. A handle, especially that of a plough.
3. The curved or inclined front and bottom of a water wheel bucket.
4. The arm, or level, of a gin, drawn around by a horse.

Derived terms

1. redstart

Anagrams

• Strat, Tarts, strat, tarts

Breton

Adjective

start

1. firm, strong
2. difficult

Derived terms

• startijenn

Further reading

• Herve Ar Bihan, Colloquial Breton, pages 16 and 268: define "start" as "hard, difficult, firm"

Crimean Tatar

Etymology

Borrowed from English start.

Noun

start

1. start

Declension

References

• Mirjejev, V. A.; Usejinov, S. M. (2002) Ukrajins?ko-kryms?kotatars?kyj slovnyk [Ukrainian – Crimean Tatar Dictionary]?^[3], Simferopol: Dolya, ?ISBN

Czech

Etymology

Borrowed from English start.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?start]

Noun

start m

1. start (beginning point of a race)

Declension

Related terms

• p?ipravit se, pozor, start

See also

• cíl m

Further reading

• start in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• start in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from English start.

Noun

start c (singular definite starten, plural indefinite starter)

1. start

Inflection

Verb

start

1. imperative of starte

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?rt/
• Hyphenation: start
• Rhymes: -?rt

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English start.

Noun

start m (plural starts, diminutive startje n)

1. start

Derived terms

• pikstart
• startbaan
• starten
• startpunt

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

start

1. first-, second- and third-person singular present indicative of starten
2. imperative of starten

German

Verb

start

1. singular imperative of starten

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English start.

Noun

start m (definite singular starten, indefinite plural starter, definite plural startene)

1. a start

Derived terms

• omstart
• startsted

Etymology 2

Verb

start

1. imperative of starte

References

• “start” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Borrowed from English start.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?rt/

Noun

start m (definite singular starten, indefinite plural startar, definite plural startane)

1. a start (beginning)

Verb

start

1. imperative of starta

Derived terms

• omstart

References

• “start” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from English start.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /start/

Noun

start m inan

1. (sports) start (the beginning of a race)
2. (aviation) takeoff

   Z niecierpliwo?ci? czeka?am na start samolotu do Pary?a.

   I was impatiently waiting for the plane to Paris to take off. (=for its take-off)

3. participation

   Wi?kszo?? kibiców ucieszy?a si?, ?e zdecydowa? si? on na start w zawodach.

   Most fans were happy to hear that he had decided to take part in the competition.

Declension

Derived terms

• startowa? (“to start”, verb)
• startowy (“tarting, take-off”, adjective)
• falstart m (“false start”, noun)

Further reading

• start in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from English start.

Pronunciation

Noun

start c

1. a start; a beginning (of a race)
2. the starting (of an engine)

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

• starta
• starter
• startare

References

• start in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

Anagrams

• ratts, trast

Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from English start.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [sta?t]
• Hyphenation: start

Noun

start (definite accusative start?, plural startlar)

1. start

Usage notes

As Turks are generally not easily spelling consonants at the beginning of a syllable, this word may often be spelled as [s?ta?t].

Declension

Antonyms

• fini?