Definition of "to begin with" []

• Before now (adverb)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "I want to begin with a four-year-long afterlife experiment involving seven people."
• "We had already been doing that, as had the Brits, but one reason Russia and China were not in the Core Group to begin with was that we wanted to get something going that was not wishy-washy or watered down, and then bring others on board."
• "The 135th and final space shuttle mission is due to begin with the launch of Atlantis from Florida at 16:26 BST on Friday."