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.

 

© Webster 1913.