start off

verb

1. To begin.

   “She started off with a lullaby.”

2. To set out on a trip.

   “They started off on horseback.”

   “I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.”

3. To instigate someone to laugh or cry or to begin talking about something they often talk about.

   “Don't start him off about that again.”