put/set sth in motion
to start a machine or process:
Once the printing processes have been put in motion, they're not so easy to stop.
We filled in a form to set the whole process in motion.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Starting and beginning
- be in the first flush of idiom
- become
- begin
- branch out
- break into sth
- export
- go ahead
- ground
- incipient
- initiator
- instate
- introduce
- kick
- kick-start
- strike
- touch sth off
- train
- trigger
- wade in
- weave
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