Definition of "jump-start" []

• To start (the engine of a motor vehicle) by using a booster cable connected to the battery of another vehicle or by engaging the drive train while the vehicle is rolling downhill or being pushed. (verb-transitive)
• Informal To start or reinvigorate (an activity, system, or process): "struggled to jump-start his once front-running . . . presidential campaign” ( Susan Feeney). (verb-transitive)
• The act, process, or an instance of starting a motor vehicle by using a booster cable or suddenly releasing the clutch while the vehicle is being pushed. (noun)
• Informal The act or an instance of starting or setting in motion a stalled or sluggish system or process. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Putting words, or key parts of words, together to form new words, as with moonshine or daylight, crossroads or earthquake, but also linebacker, lemonade, and jump-start, comes naturally to speakers of English."
• "AvalonBay Communities Inc. will break ground Wednesday on a New Jersey apartment project that aims to jump-start the transformation of a shuttered airplane-engine factory into an urban hub."
• "Anybody else have specific words they use to jump-start an impersonation? posted by Deron Bauman in entertainment, language | * | 15 comments comments"