6  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Begin  \Be*gin"\,  v.  i.  [imp.  &  p.  p.  {Began},  {Begun};  p.  pr  & 
  vb  n.  {Beginning}.]  [AS.  beginnan  (akin  to  OS  biginnan  D. 
  &  G.  beginnen  OHG.  biginnan  Goth.,  du-ginnan,  Sw  begynna 
  Dan.  begynde);  pref.  be-  +  an  assumed  ginnan  [root]31.  See 
  {Gin}  to  begin.] 
  1.  To  have  or  commence  an  independent  or  first  existence;  to 
  take  rise;  to  commence. 
 
  Vast  chain  of  being!  which  from  God  began.  --Pope. 
 
  2.  To  do  the  first  act  or  the  first  part  of  an  action  to 
  enter  upon  or  commence  something  new  as  a  new  form  or 
  state  of  being  or  course  of  action  to  take  the  first 
  step;  to  start  ``Tears  began  to  flow.''  --Dryden. 
 
  When  I  begin,  I  will  also  make  an  end  --1  Sam.  iii. 
  12. 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Begin  \Be*gin"\,  v.  t. 
  1.  To  enter  on  to  commence. 
 
  Ye  nymphs  of  Solyma  !  begin  the  song.  --Pope. 
 
  2.  To  trace  or  lay  the  foundation  of  to  make  or  place  a 
  beginning  of 
 
  The  apostle  begins  our  knowledge  in  the  creatures, 
  which  leads  us  to  the  knowledge  of  God.  --Locke. 
 
  Syn:  To  commence;  originate;  set  about  start 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Begin  \Be*gin"\,  n. 
  Beginning.  [Poetic  &  Obs.]  --Spenser. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  begin 
  v  1:  take  the  first  step  or  steps  in  carrying  out  an  action:  "We 
  began  working  at  dawn";  "Who  will  start?"  "Get  working 
  as  soon  as  the  sun  rises!"  [syn:  {get},  {start  out},  {start}, 
  {set  about},  {set  out},  {commence}]  [ant:  {end}] 
  2:  have  a  beginning,  in  a  temporal,  spatial,  or  evaluative 
  sense:  "The  DMZ  begins  right  over  the  hill";  "The  second 
  movement  begins  after  the  Allegro";  "Prices  for  these 
  homes  start  at  $250,000"  [syn:  {start}]  [ant:  {end}] 
  3:  get  off  the  ground;  "Who  started  this  company?"  "We  embarked 
  on  an  exciting  enterprise"  [syn:  {start},  {start  up},  {embark 
  on},  {commence}] 
  4:  set  in  motion,  cause  to  start  "The  U.S.  started  a  war  in 
  the  Middle  East";  "The  Iraquis  began  hostilities";  "begin 
  a  new  chapter  in  your  life"  [syn:  {lead  off},  {start},  {commence}] 
  [ant:  {end}] 
  5:  begin  to  speak  or  say  "Now  listen,  friends,"  he  began 
  6:  come  first  in  a  series;  "The  number  one"  begins  the 
  sequence" 
  7:  achieve  or  accomplish  in  the  least  degree,  usually  used  in 
  the  negative:  "This  economic  measure  doesn't  even  begin  to 
  deal  with  the  problem  of  inflation" 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  @Begin 
 
    The  {Scribe}  equivalent  of  {\begin}. 
 
  [{Jargon  File}] 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  \begin 
 
    The  {LaTeX}  command  used  with  \end  to  delimit  an 
  environment  within  which  the  text  is  formatted  in  a  certain 
  way  E.g.  \begin{table}...\end{table}. 
 
  Used  humorously  in  writing  to  indicate  a  context  or  to  remark 
  on  the  surrounded  text.  For  example: 
 
  \begin{flame} 
  Predicate  logic  is  the  only  good  programming 
  language.  Anyone  who  would  use  anything  else 
  is  an  idiot.  Also  all  computers  should  be 
  tredecimal  instead  of  binary. 
  \end{flame} 
 
  {Scribe}  users  at  {CMU}  and  elsewhere  used  to  use  @Begin/@End 
  in  an  identical  way  (LaTeX  was  built  to  resemble  Scribe).  On 
  {Usenet},  this  construct  would  more  frequently  be  rendered  as 
  ""  and  ""  (a  la  {HTML}),  or  "#ifdef 
  FLAME"  and  "#endif  FLAME"  (a  la  {C  preprocessor}). 
 
  (1998-09-21) 
 
 

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