Meaning

• Someone who starts something.

  "a starter on a journey"

• Something that starts something.

  "It's small, but it's a good starter house."

• The first course of a meal, consisting of a small, usually savoury, dish.

• (team sports) A player in the lineup of players that a team fields at the beginning of a game.

• A dog that rouses game.

• A short length of rope formerly used for casual chastisement in the Navy.

• A railway signal controlling the starting of trains from a station or some other location, more fully called a starter signal or starting signal.