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To begin; to commence; as, the stock opened at par; the battery opened upon the enemy.

The act or process of opening; a beginning; commencement; first appearance; as, the opening of a speech. The opening of your glory was like that of light. Dryden.

Origin; commencement; source. It hath it original from much grief. Shak. And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim. Addison.

Originating in the character of the germ, or at the first commencement of an individual; -- said of peculiarities of structure, character, etc.

e, as a series of years, months, or days, in which something is completed, and ready to recommence and go on in the same order; as, the period of the sun, or the earth, or a comet.

One who commences a personal action or suit to obtain a remedy for an injury to his rights; -- opposed to Ant: defendant.

English kings." Drayton. Primer fine (O. Eng. Law), a fine due to the king on the writ or commencement of a suit by fine. Blackstone. -- Primer seizin (Feudal Law), the right of the king, when a tenant in capite died seized of a knight's fee, to receive of the heir, if of full age, one year's profits of the land if in…

Beginning; commencement. [Obs.] Doubting sad end of principle unsound. Spenser.

The institution, or commencement, and continuance of a criminal suit; the process of exhibiting formal charges against an offender before a legal tribunal, and pursuing them to final judgment on behalf of the state or government, as by indictment or information.

Specifically (Eccl. Hist.), the important religious movement commenced by Luther early in the sixteenth century, which resulted in the formation of the various Protestant churches.

One of those who commenced the reformation of religion in the sixteenth century, as Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, and Calvin.

To begin again; to recommence. The last great age . . . renews its finished course. Dryden.

To begin again; to recommence, as something which has been interrupted; as, to resume an argument or discourse.

The student who pronounces the salutatory oration at the annual Commencement or like exercises of a college, -- an honor commonly assigned to that member of the graduating class who ranks second in scholarship. [U.S.]

ome; greeting; -- applied especially to the oration which introduces the exercises of the Commencements, or similar public exhibitions, in American colleges.

ized; untaught; unpolished; rude; as, savage life; savage manners. What nation, since the commencement of the Christian era, ever rose from savage to civilized without Christianity E. D. Griffin.

to establish; to found; as, to set up a manufactory; to set up a school. (d) To enable to commence a new business; as, to set up a son in trade. (e) To place in view; as, to set up a mark. (f) To raise; to utter loudly; as, to set up the voice. I'll set up such a note as she shall hear. Dryden.

To set out; to commence a course, as a race or journey; to begin; as, to start business. At once they start, advancing in a line. Dryden. At intervals some bird from out the brakes Starts into voice a moment, then is still. Byron.

To break forth; to commence suddenly; -- with into; as, to strike into reputation; to strike into a run.

like, serving for various uses. Specifically: (a) The lintel of a door or window. (b) The commencement of a cross vault.