start out

verb

started out; starting out; starts out

1

: to begin in a specified way

He started out by introducing himself.

She started out at a slow jog.

The day started out hot and humid.

The story started out good, but I didn't like the ending.

She started out wanting to be a doctor but became a midwife instead.

—often + with

I started out with $100 but I have only $10 left.

Let's start out with some warm-up exercises.

2

: to have a specified quality, identity, job, etc., at the start

What started out as a simple idea has become an expensive and complicated project.

He started out in teaching before becoming a lawyer.

3

: to begin an important period in one's life or career

The couple is just starting out.

She started out on a career in teaching.

4

: to begin a trip

They started out in the early morning.

5

: to have a particular place as a beginning point

The parade starts out at the intersection of First and Main.

Examples of start out in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Baturina is a more advanced midfielder, capable of starting out wide but preferring to drift into pockets of space between the lines. — Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 8 Sep. 2026

To satisfy its voracity for billions of pages, Anthropic started out by placing mass orders with wholesalers, before turning to individual and secondhand booksellers to help fill in the gaps. — Francesca Mancino, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2026

The company was founded by Joseph-Armand Bombardier, an inventor and entrepreneur in Canada’s rural Quebec who started out making snowmobiles and other snow-going equipment in the 1930s. — Los Angeles Times, 8 Sep. 2026

Russell Wong started out in Hong Kong before doing Hollywood projects like The Joy Luck Club and Vanishing Son. — E. Alex Jung, Vulture, 8 Sep. 2026

Rhymes for start out

• about
• bailout
• blackout
• blowout
• breakout
• burnout
• buyout
• checkout
• closeout
• cutout
• devout
• dropout