From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishfalse startˌfalse ˈstart noun [countable] 1 START DOING somethingan unsuccessful attempt to begin a process or event After several false starts, the concert finally began.2 START DOING somethinga situation at the beginning of a race when one competitor starts too soon and the race has to start again
Examples from the Corpus
false start• On the first false start, the tape caught round some horses' necks.• It takes some arranging, and at least one false start, to get the conference call together. 