head start

noun

Definition of head start

1 : an advantage granted or achieved at the beginning of a race, a chase, or a competition a 10-minute head start

2 : a favorable or promising beginning

Examples of head start in a Sentence

They gave me a five-minute head start. She took some extra classes to get a head start in her career. His natural athletic talent gave him a head start on his peers.

Recent Examples on the Web

If the skill of private forecasts exceeded public ones, knowing the weather first would become a luxury–giving those willing to pay a head start on evacuating ahead of a storm or preparing for its impacts. — Andrew Blum, Time, "Inside the Weather Wars That May Threaten the Daily Forecast You Depend On," 27 June 2019 By getting a head start in swing states, Trump is gaining an edge in honing his general election messages. — Evan Halper, latimes.com, "Trump’s big, early lead in Facebook ads deeply worries Democratic strategists," 12 June 2019 Dance likes to point out that her opponent got a head start. — Washington Post, "Issues of race and scandal pulse through Virginia primary contest," 6 June 2019 Maybe your family's getting a head start on your summer bucket list and has a quick camping trip or lake getaway planned. — Blair Donovan, Country Living, "Need to Make a Walmart Run on Memorial Day? Here Are the Store's Holiday Hours," 20 May 2019 Before the army departed for King's Landing, the Hound got a head start, setting off towards the capital by his lonesome for one last duel with the Mountain. — Ineye Komonibo, Marie Claire, "Will the Cleganebowl Be Sparked by Arya Dying on 'Game of Thrones'?," 6 May 2019 Thomas DelVecchio, founder and chief executive officer of ETR parent company Aptiviti Inc., said the results show how both Amazon and Microsoft benefited from getting a head start in the cloud market. — Angus Loten, WSJ, "Amazon, Microsoft Tighten Grip on Enterprise Tech," 18 Mar. 2019 Dickson got a little head start on holding during the Pro Bowl week of practices, handling the holds for NFC kicker Aldrick Rosas of the Giants. — Bob Condotta, The Seattle Times, "Five things the Seahawks players did at the Pro Bowl," 27 Jan. 2019 Twitter appeared to be getting a head start on the purge on Tuesday night: President Donald Trump lost about 100,000 of his 53.4 million followers and former President Barack Obama lost about 400,000 of his 104 million followers. — Elizabeth Dwoskin, chicagotribune.com, "Twitter begins removing millions of accounts in crackdown on fake profiles," 11 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'head start.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

10 Jul 2019

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Time Traveler for head start

The first known use of head start was in 1859

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More Definitions for head start

head start

noun

Kids Definition of head start

: an advantage given at the beginning (as to a school child or a runner)

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