begin
/bɪˈgɪn/ verb (present participle beginning, past tense began, past participle begun)Definition
START TO DO [I, T] › to start to do something: [+ to do sth] The children began to cry. [+ doing sth] Have they begun building the wall yet? She began her career as a journalist on a local newspaper.
START TO HAPPEN [I] › to start to happen: What time does the film begin? The war began at the end of August.
begin with sth › to have something at the start: Local phone numbers begin with 1223.
to begin with › at the start of a situation: To begin with, the two girls got on well. › used to give the first important reason for something: To begin with, we can't leave the children alone.
(Definition of begin verb from the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary
© Cambridge University Press)
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