self-starter — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A person who shows initiative and resourcefulness.

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   Purchasing a snowplow transforms Homer into a new man. Mr. Burns' laziest employee suddenly becomes an ambitious self-starter who buys ad time on local television at 3:17 A.M^([sic]) (prime viewing hours, Homer gingerly volunteers, for everyone from alcoholics to the unemployable to garden-variety angry loners) and makes a homemade commercial costarring his family.

2. A mechanism (usually one operated by electricity, compressed air, a spring, or an explosive gas), attached to an internal-combustion engine, as on an automobile, and used as a means of starting the engine without cranking it by hand.

   Synonyms

   starter

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   The grey Bentley convertible, the 1933 4½-litre with the Amherst-Villiers supercharger, had been brought round a few minutes earlier from the garage where he kept it and the engine had kicked directly he pressed the self-starter.

3. An engine so equipped, or the vehicle that it powers.

   Examples

   His ancient Cadillac was one of the first self-starters.

Noun

1. an energetic person with unusual initiative

   Broader terms

   powerhousehuman dynamoball of firefireball

2. an electric starting motor that automatically starts an internal-combustion engine

   Broader terms

   starterstarter motorstarting motor