cold start.

1. The starting of an engine or other machine before it has warmed to operating conditions.

2. The start of a computing system from a powered-off or otherwise uninitialized state rather than a warm restart.

3. A lack of prior data that makes a prediction or recommendation system struggle with a new user or item.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• an engine cold start
• cold-start performance

On the page

The engine’s cold start sounded rougher than its later run.

She tested cold-start performance after a night outside the heated hangar.

Usage notes

Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: Singular cold start; plural cold starts. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.