"fire the starting gun" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "fires the starting gun",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "firing the starting gun",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fired the starting gun",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fired the starting gun",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "fire the starting gun"
      },
      "expansion": "fire the starting gun (third-person singular simple present fires the starting gun, present participle firing the starting gun, simple past and past participle fired the starting gun)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2018 November 19, Kalyeena Makortoff, “Noel Edmonds likely to file £60m Lloyds lawsuit on Wednesday”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "The TV and radio star Noel Edmonds, who is expected to join ITV’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here jungle camp this week, is also likely to fire the starting gun on a £60m lawsuit against Lloyds Bank.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 May 17, Jamie Smyth, “Quick blood tests to spot cancer: will they help or harm patients?”, in Financial Times",
          "text": "Halks-Miller’s discovery fired the starting gun on the race to develop a diagnostic blood test. Illumina spun off a new company, Grail, to develop the test, raising more than $2bn from investors including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and the Chinese company Tencent.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To launch or trigger an event or situation."
      ],
      "id": "en-fire_the_starting_gun-en-verb-tYmSjCpo",
      "links": [
        [
          "on",
          "on#English"
        ],
        [
          "launch",
          "launch"
        ],
        [
          "trigger",
          "trigger"
        ],
        [
          "event",
          "event"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, often followed by on) To launch or trigger an event or situation."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "followed by on"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "often"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "fire the starting gun"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "fires the starting gun",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "firing the starting gun",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fired the starting gun",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fired the starting gun",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "head": "fire the starting gun"
      },
      "expansion": "fire the starting gun (third-person singular simple present fires the starting gun, present participle firing the starting gun, simple past and past participle fired the starting gun)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2018 November 19, Kalyeena Makortoff, “Noel Edmonds likely to file £60m Lloyds lawsuit on Wednesday”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "The TV and radio star Noel Edmonds, who is expected to join ITV’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here jungle camp this week, is also likely to fire the starting gun on a £60m lawsuit against Lloyds Bank.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023 May 17, Jamie Smyth, “Quick blood tests to spot cancer: will they help or harm patients?”, in Financial Times",
          "text": "Halks-Miller’s discovery fired the starting gun on the race to develop a diagnostic blood test. Illumina spun off a new company, Grail, to develop the test, raising more than $2bn from investors including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and the Chinese company Tencent.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To launch or trigger an event or situation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "on",
          "on#English"
        ],
        [
          "launch",
          "launch"
        ],
        [
          "trigger",
          "trigger"
        ],
        [
          "event",
          "event"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, often followed by on) To launch or trigger an event or situation."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "followed by on"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "often"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "fire the starting gun"
}