set
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: sĕt
ipa: /sɛt/
homophone: sett
rhymes: -ɛt
Forms: form: sets
form: setting
form: set
form: set
form: setten
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: set
form: set
form: set
form: set
form: settest
form: set
form: settest
form: sets
form: setteth
form: set
form: set
form: set
form: set
form: set
form: set
form: -
form: setting
form: set
form: setten
Etymology: From Middle English setten, from Old English settan, from Proto-West Germanic *sattjan, from Proto-Germanic *satjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *sodéyeti, causative of *sed- (“to sit”).
Senses: examples: text: Set the tray there.
text: He helped his mother set the table for lunch.
synonyms: put
lay
set down
antonyms: pick up
glosses: To put (something) down, to rest.
examples: text: I have set my heart on running the marathon.
text: The Lord set a mark upon Cain.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 4:15:
glosses: To attach or affix (something) to something else, or in or upon a certain place.
examples: text: The Lord thy God will set thee on high.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 28:1:
text: I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 10:35:
text: Every incident sets him thinking.
ref: 1827, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Hamlet:
glosses: To put in a specified condition or state; to cause to be.
synonyms: light
antonyms: extinguish
put out
quench
glosses: To start (a fire).
examples: text: to set a coach in the mud
glosses: To cause to stop or stick; to obstruct; to fasten to a spot.
examples: text: to set the rent
glosses: To determine or settle.
examples: text: I set the alarm at 6 a.m.
text: I set the alarm for 6 a.m.
glosses: To adjust.
glosses: To punch (a nail) into wood so that its head is below the surface.
examples: text: Please set the table for our guests.
glosses: To arrange with dishes and cutlery, to set the table.
examples: text: I’ll tell you what happened, but first let me set the scene.
text: An incident which happened about this time will set the characters of these two lads more fairly before the discerning reader than is in the power of the longest dissertation.
ref: 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter II, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To introduce or describe.
examples: text: He says he will set his next film in France.
text: Her debut novel is set during the U.S. Civil War.
glosses: To locate (a play, etc.); to assign a backdrop to, geographically or temporally.
examples: text: This crossword was set by Araucaria.
glosses: To compile, to make (a puzzle or challenge).
glosses: To prepare (a stage or film set).
glosses: To fit (someone) up in a situation.
examples: text: It was a complex page, but he set it quickly.
synonyms: typeset
glosses: To arrange (type).
examples: text: The teacher set her students the task of drawing a foot.
glosses: To devise and assign (work) to.
topics: ball-games
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
volleyball
glosses: To direct (the ball) to a teammate for an attack.
examples: text: The glue sets in five minutes.
glosses: To solidify.
examples: text: to set milk for cheese
glosses: To render stiff or solid; especially, to convert into curd; to curdle.
examples: text: The moon sets at eight o'clock tonight.
glosses: Of a heavenly body, to disappear below the horizon of a planet, etc, as the latter rotates.
topics: bridge
games
glosses: To defeat a contract.
examples: text: The king is set from London, and the scene is now transported, gentles, to Southampton
ref: 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
glosses: To begin to move; to go forth.
raw_tags: as in set out
followed by "out"
examples: text: to set seed
text: Many fruit trees will only flower and set fruit following a cold winter.
ref: 2012, Daniel Chamovitz, What a Plant Knows, page 155:
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: To produce after pollination.
examples: text: In the Annapolis Valley, in spite of an irregular bloom, the fruit has set well and has, as yet, been little affected by scab.
ref: 1906, Canada. Dept. of Agriculture. Fruit Branch, Fruit crop report:
glosses: To be fixed for growth; to strike root; to begin to germinate or form.
raw_tags: of fruit
examples: text: He sets in that chair all day.
text: Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: And if Mrs. Garner didn't need me right there in the kitchen, I could get a chair and you and me could set out there while I did the vegetables.
ref: 1987, Toni Morrison, Beloved, page 227:
glosses: To sit (be in a seated position).
examples: text: Well, we rolled up Interstate 44
Like a rocket-sled on rails.
We tore up all of our swindle sheets
And left 'em settin' on the scales.
ref: 1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall:
glosses: To rest or lie somewhere, on something, etc.; to occupy a certain place.
glosses: To hunt game with the aid of a setter.
examples: text: The dog sets the bird.
text: Your dog sets well.
topics: hobbies
hunting
lifestyle
glosses: Of a dog, to indicate the position of game.
examples: text: If he set industriously and sincerely to perform the commands of Christ, he can have no ground of doubting but it shall prove successful to him.
ref: 1654, H[enry] Hammond, Of Fundamentals in a Notion Referring to Practise, London: […] J[ames] Flesher for Richard Royston, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To apply oneself; to undertake earnestly.
examples: text: Set thy own songs, and sing them to thy lute.
ref: 1709, J[ohn] Dryden, J[ohn] Oldham, “(please specify the page)”, in Mac Flecknoe: A Poem. […] With Spencer’s Ghost: Being a Satyr Concerning Poetry. […], London: […] H[enry] Hills, […], →OCLC:
text: That I might sing it (Madam) to a tune:
Giue me a Note, your Ladiship can set
ref: c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
glosses: To fit music to words.
examples: text: to set pear trees in an orchard
text: We saw him with eight men setting potatoes within a week of mid-summer.
ref: 1774, John Robinson, Thomas Rispin, A Journey Through Nova-Scotia, York: C. Etherington, page 19:
text: At Eastertime one year, she helped him to set potatoes.
ref: 1915, D. H. Lawrence, The Rainbow, Vintage, published 2011, page 204:
glosses: To place plants or shoots in the ground; to plant.
glosses: To become fixed or rigid; to be fastened.
examples: text: The current sets to the north; the tide sets to the windward.
glosses: To have a certain direction of motion; to flow; to move on; to tend.
examples: text: Set to partners! was the next instruction from the caller.
topics: country-dancing
dancing
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: To acknowledge a dancing partner by facing him or her and moving first to one side and then to the other, while she or he does the opposite.
examples: text: to set a precious stone in a border of metal
text: to set glass in a sash
text: And him too rich a jewel to be set / In vulgar metal for a vulgar use.
ref: 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act IV, page 58:
glosses: To place or fix in a setting.
examples: text: to set (that is, to hone) a razor
text: to set a saw
glosses: To put in order in a particular manner; to prepare.
examples: text: to set the sails of a ship
glosses: To extend and bring into position; to spread.
examples: text: […] I ſhould be very vvilling to be his Clerk; for vvhich you knovv I am qualified, being able to read, and to ſet a Pſalm.
ref: 1742, Henry Fielding, “Here Joseph Andrews Writ a Letter to His Sister Pamela”, in The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. […], volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book I, page 25:
glosses: To give a pitch to, as a tune; to start by fixing the keynote.
examples: text: to set a broken bone
glosses: To reduce from a dislocated or fractured state.
examples: text: If you also knew how to combine foods—that is, what foods eaten together “set well,” you need never have indigestion, constipation or any of the headachy, stomachachy ills they lead to.
ref: 1917 February 12, “If You Knew What Foods?” (advertisement), in The Independent, volume 59, number 3558, New York: Independent Corporation, page 280:
glosses: To sit or lie (easily etc.) on the stomach; to be digested in a certain manner.
topics: business
construction
manufacturing
masonry
glosses: To lower into place and fix solidly, as the blocks of cut stone in a structure.
examples: text: I have set my life upon a cast, / And I will stand the hazard of the die.
ref: c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv]:
glosses: To wager in gambling; to risk.
examples: text: High on their heads, with jewels richly set, / Each lady wore a radiant coronet.
ref: 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Flower and the Leaf: Or, The Lady in the Arbour. A Vision.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
text: pastoral dales thin set with modern farms
ref: 1815, William Wordsworth, Poems of the Imagination:
glosses: To adorn with something infixed or affixed; to stud; to variegate with objects placed here and there.
examples: text: Be you contented, wearing now the garland, / To have a son set your decrees at naught.
ref: c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
text: I do not set my life at a pin's fee.
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:
glosses: To value; to rate; used with at.
examples: text: to set a good example
glosses: To establish as a rule; to furnish; to prescribe; to assign.
examples: text: It sets him ill.
glosses: To suit; to become.
examples: text: To set a hen.
glosses: To cause (a domestic fowl) to sit on eggs to brood.
Synonyms: sense: of heavenly bodies, to disappear below the horizon
word: go down
sense: of heavenly bodies, to disappear below the horizon
word: go west
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: beset
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: coldset
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: foreset
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: forset
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: forthset
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: have one's heart set upon
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: heatset
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: inset
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: level set
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: nailset
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: newset
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: overset
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: reset
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set aback
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set a beggar on horseback and he'll ride to the Devil
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set about
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set adrift
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set afire
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set after
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set against
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set ahead
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set alight
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set-and-forget
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set an example
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set apart
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set aright
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set aside
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set-aside
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set a spell
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set a sponge
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set at defiance
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set a thief to catch a thief
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set at naught
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set at nought
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set back
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set by
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set by the ears
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set down
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set eyes on
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set fair
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set-fair
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set fire
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set fire by
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set fire in
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set fire into
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set fire of
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set fire on
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set fire to
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set fire unto
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set fire upon
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set foot
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set foot on land
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set forth
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set forward
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set forwards
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set free
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set in
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set in motion
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set in stone
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set in train
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set loose
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set mine
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set off
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set on
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set on a pedestal
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set one's affairs in order
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set one's cap at
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set one's face against
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set one's hair on fire
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set one's hand to
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set one's heart on
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set one's heart upon
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set one's house in order
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set one's shoulder to the wheel
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set one's sights
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set one's sights on
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set one's watch back
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set one's watch by someone
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set on fire
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set on foot
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set onto
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set out
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set over
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set pen to paper
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set phasers to
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set pulses racing
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set right
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set sail
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set sails
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set sights
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set sights on
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set someone's teeth on edge
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set store by
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set straight
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the ball rolling
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the bar
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the cat among the pigeons
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the heather alight
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the heather on fire
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the land
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the pace
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the record straight
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the scene
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the stage
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the table
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the Thames on fire
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the tone
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the wheels in motion
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the world ablaze
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the world afire
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the world aflame
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the world alight
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the world on fire
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set the world to rights
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set to
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set together by the ears
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set to music
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set to work
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set up
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set upon
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set up to oneself
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: set with
sense: Terms derived from set (verb)
word: withset