false start

English[edit]

false start (plural false starts)

(sports) The act of an athlete starting a race before being signaled to do so.
Synonyms: jump-start, flyer
(American football) The act of an offensive player moving across the line of scrimmage prior to the snap.
An attempt at something that does not work, requiring one to start over.
- 1962 December, “Motive Power Miscellany: North Eastern Region”, in Modern Railways, page 422:
  After a "false start" that was too vigorous, overloading the motors, No. D171 made a very successful unassisted run from Tyne Dock to Consett.
- 2017 December 1, Tom Breihan, “Mad Max: Fury Road might already be the best action movie ever made”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[1]:
  He spent nearly 20 years developing the movie, keeping at it through false starts and heartbreaking dead ends. And when he got the chance to make it, he went all in, devising entire societies full of baroquely souped-up death machines and screaming war-cults.

starting before the signal