Initiations include rolling up one's trousers, being blindfolded with a rope round one's neck, and having a knife pointed at one's bare breast.

BBC: Would you want to be a Freemason?

Grand secretary Brown argues that the initiations are allegorical one-act plays.

BBC: Would you want to be a Freemason?

Overall this is a great cross functional success with the teams of software development, sustainability organization and facility management in energy savings and energy efficiency initiations.

FORBES: The Green Green Grass of SAP

These traditions and practices constitute their codes of ethics and governance systems, and include prayers, oath-taking, burial rites and charms, naming of the newly born, initiations, reconciliation, marriages and coronations.

UNESCO: Culture

Thus, with house prices still soft and many borrowers of recent-vintage subprime ARMs still facing their first interest rate resets, delinquencies and foreclosure initiations in this class of mortgages are likely to rise further.

NPR: Transcript: Bernanke on Mortgages, Foreclosures

It is difficult to be precise about the number of foreclosure initiations expected in coming quarters, as it will depend on (among other factors) the evolution of house prices, which will vary widely across localities.

NPR: Transcript: Bernanke on Mortgages, Foreclosures

They had once been benign fraternities, but they had evolved, and now eighteen-year-olds who had mastered the swagger of American rap videos were undergoing secret initiations that sometimes left one or two of them dead on Odim Hill.

NEWYORKER: Cell One