set off
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Forms: form: sets off
form: setting off
form: set off
form: set off
Senses: examples: text: He set off in search of better opportunities.
text: Considerable excitement was caused on the L.M.S.R. Aberdeen line out of Perth recently when a shunting engine in Perth North goods yard, whose driver and fireman were absent, was accidentally set in motion by a shunter and set off unattended on to the main line.
ref: 1941 October, “Notes and News: A Highland Runaway”, in Railway Magazine, page 469:
text: The train is booked to stop at Jiza for only three minutes, but more often than not twenty minutes or more are spent on shunting before it sets off again on what must be one of the most dreary journeys in the world.
ref: 1956 March, R. C. Blaker, “The Hedjaz Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 165:
synonyms: word: set forth
word: take off
word: beat it
word: bug off
word: remove
word: bugger off
word: book
word: bounce
word: buzz off
word: chuck
word: cut one's stick
word: dash
word: depart
word: duck out
word: exit
word: get away
word: get out
word: go
word: go away
word: go out
word: GTFO
word: leave
word: make tracks
word: move on
word: namous
word: part
word: piss off
word: pull up stakes
word: put out
word: start
word: start out
word: set forth
word: set off
word: set out
word: run along
word: sling one's hook
word: split
word: take off
word: take leave
word: take one's leave
word: take wing
word: quit
glosses: To leave; to set out; to begin a journey or trip.
examples: text: I had no idea that one simple comment would set off such a huge argument.
synonyms: word: bring forth
word: produce
word: bring forth
word: cause
word: contrive
word: create
word: engender
word: generate
word: gin up
word: innate
word: form
word: forthbring
word: make
word: produce
word: spawn
word: abet
word: actuate
word: goose
word: send
word: sting
word: bring about
word: cheer
word: drive
word: encourage
word: egg on
word: engender
word: evoke
word: excite
word: foment
word: goad
word: grill
word: ignite
word: impel
word: incite
word: induce
word: inflame
word: instigate
word: invoke
word: lash
word: motive
word: motivate
word: move
word: obligate
word: oblige
word: push
word: promote
word: prompt
word: provoke
word: rouse
word: set off
word: spark off
word: spur
word: spur on
word: stimulate
word: stir
word: stir up
word: stoke
word: tempt
word: urge
word: whet
word: whip up
coordinate_terms: kick off
glosses: To begin; to cause; to initiate.
examples: text: What a tragedy, that someone would set off a bomb in a crowded place.
text: Wrex: There are acid tanks rigged up on that thing. Set them off. Millions of my ancestors died to put these things down. Don't let them come back.
ref: 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Secure Lab, Rift Station, Noveria:
synonyms: blow up
detonate
touch off
glosses: To cause to explode, let off.
examples: text: Don't set him off or he won't shut up all day.
synonyms: word: incense
word: put out
word: affront
word: aggravate
word: anger
word: antagonize
word: awrath
word: burn up
word: cheese off
word: cross
word: embitter
word: envenom
word: gall
word: get
word: get to
word: honk off
word: incense
word: inflame
word: infuriate
word: madden
word: make angry
word: nark
word: offend
word: outrage
word: provoke
word: put out
word: rankle
word: rile
word: piss off
word: roil
word: set off
word: steam
word: tick off
word: get one's back up
word: get someone's dander up
word: get someone's goat
word: get someone's Irish up
word: make someone see red
word: make someone's blood boil
word: put someone's back up
word: raise someone's hackles
word: raise someone's shag
word: rattle someone's cage
word: rub the wrong way
word: ruffle some feathers
word: set up someone's birse
glosses: To put into an angry mood; to start (a person) ranting or sulking, etc.
examples: text: Her plain white dress was set off by a bright red stole.
text: And then one afternoon in the hinder end of April came young Heriotside riding to the Skerburnfoot. His arm was healed, he had got him a fine new suit of green, and his horse was a mettle beast that well set off his figure.
ref: 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
glosses: To enhance by emphasizing differences.
examples: text: My taxes did not increase because the amount of my raise was set off by my losses in the stock market.
text: When a woman had made such a mistake, there was only one way to repair it,—to accept it. One folly was enough, especially it was to last for ever; a second one would not much set it off.
ref: 1908, Henry James, chapter XXXIX, in The Portrait of a Lady (The Novels and Tales of Henry James), New York edition, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC; republished as The Portrait of a Lady (EBook #283), United States: Project Gutenberg, 1 September 2001:
synonyms: counter
counteract
negate
offstand
glosses: To offset, to compensate for: to reduce the effect of, by having a contrary effect.
topics: media
printing
publishing
glosses: To deface or soil the next sheet; said of the ink on a freshly printed sheet, when another sheet comes in contact with it before it has had time to dry.
Related terms: offset
put off
throw off