fire the starting gun en · VERB
Meanings
-
(followed by on, idiomatic, often) To launch or trigger an event or situation.
Halks-Miller’s discovery fired the starting gun on the race to develop a diagnostic blood test. Illumina spun off a new company, Grail, to develop the test, raising more than $2bn from investors including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and the Chinese company Tencent.
2023 May 17, Jamie Smyth, “Quick blood tests to spot cancer: will they help or harm patients?”, in Financial Times:The TV and radio star Noel Edmonds, who is expected to join ITV’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here jungle camp this week, is also likely to fire the starting gun on a £60m lawsuit against Lloyds Bank.
2018 November 19, Kalyeena Makortoff, “Noel Edmonds likely to file £60m Lloyds lawsuit on Wednesday”, in The Guardian:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| fires the starting gun | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic | |
| fired the starting gun | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| fired the starting gun | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| firing the starting gun | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic |
Hypernyms
Relateds
kick off · jump the gun · jump-start · kick-start
Translations (1)
cmn 打響發令槍 /打响发令枪 (Translations)