Be*gin"ning (?), n. 1. The act of doing that which begins anything; commencement of an action, state, or space of time; entrance into being or upon a course; the first act, effort, or state of a succession of acts or states.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen. i. 1.
2. That which begins or originates something; the first cause; origin; source.
I am . . . the beginning and the ending.
Rev. i. 8.
3. That which is begun; a rudiment or element.
Mighty things from small beginnings grow.
Dryden.
4. Enterprise. "To hinder our beginnings."
Shak.
Syn. -- Inception; prelude; opening; threshold; origin; outset; foundation.
© Webster 1913. | 
