Dictionary entry

Beginning

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Be‐gin″ning (�), n. 1. The act of doing that which begins anything; commencement of an action, state, or space of time; entrance into being or upon a course; the first act, effort, or state of a succession of acts or states.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Gen. i. 1.

2. That which begins or originates something; the first cause; origin; source.

I am... the beginning and the ending.

Rev. i. 8.

3. That which is begun; a rudiment or element.

Mighty things from small beginnings grow.

Dryden.

4. Enterprise. “To hinder our beginnings.” Shak.

Syn. — Inception; prelude; opening; threshold; origin; outset; foundation.