Word: set Part of Speech: verb Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sed- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *sodéyeti Proto-Germanic *satjaną Proto-West Germanic *sattjan Old English settan Middle English setten English set 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”). Cognate with Dutch zetten, German setzen, Danish sætte, Norwegian Bokmål sette, Icelandic and Norwegian Nynorsk setja, Swedish sätta, Faroese seta. Pronunciation: /sɛt/ 1. To put (something) down, to rest. Labels: transitive Example: Set the tray there. Example: He helped his mother set the table for lunch. 2. To attach or affix (something) to something else, or in or upon a certain place. Labels: transitive Example: I have set my heart on running the marathon. Example: The Lord set a mark upon Cain. 3. To put in a specified condition or state; to cause to be. Labels: transitive Example: The Lord thy God will set thee on high. Example: I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother. 4. To start (a fire). Labels: transitive 5. To cause to stop or stick; to obstruct; to fasten to a spot. Labels: dated, transitive Example: to set a coach in the mud 6. To determine or settle. Labels: transitive Example: to set the rent 7. To adjust. Labels: transitive Example: I set the alarm at 6 a.m. Example: I set the alarm for 6 a.m. 8. To punch (a nail) into wood so that its head is below the surface. Labels: transitive 9. To arrange with dishes and cutlery, to set the table. Labels: transitive Example: Please set the table for our guests. 10. To introduce or describe. Labels: transitive Example: I’ll tell you what happened, but first let me set the scene. Example: 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. 11. To locate (a play, etc.); to assign a backdrop to, geographically or temporally. Labels: transitive Example: He says he will set his next film in France. Example: Her debut novel is set during the U.S. Civil War. 12. To compile, to make (a puzzle or challenge). Labels: transitive Example: This crossword was set by Araucaria. 13. To prepare (a stage or film set). Labels: transitive 14. To fit (someone) up in a situation. Labels: transitive 15. To arrange (type). Labels: transitive Example: It was a complex page, but he set it quickly. 16. To devise and assign (work) to. Labels: transitive Example: The teacher set her students the task of drawing a foot. 17. To direct (the ball) to a teammate for an attack. Labels: transitive 18. To gel; to solidify. Labels: intransitive Example: This glue sets in five minutes. Example: This jelly sets within a few hours when refrigerated. 19. To render stiff or solid; especially, to convert into curd; to curdle. Labels: transitive Example: to set milk for cheese 20. Of a heavenly body, to disappear below the horizon of a planet, etc, as the latter rotates. Labels: intransitive Example: The moon sets at eight o'clock tonight. 21. To defeat a contract. Labels: transitive 22. To begin to move; to go forth. Labels: obsolete Example: The king is set from London, and the scene is now transported, gentles, to Southampton 23. To produce after pollination. Labels: transitive Example: to set seed Example: Many fruit trees will only flower and set fruit following a cold winter. 24. To be fixed for growth; to strike root; to begin to germinate or form. Labels: intransitive Example: In the Annapolis Valley, in spite of an irregular bloom, the fruit has set well and has, as yet, been little affected by scab. 25. To sit (be in a seated position). Labels: Midwestern-US, Southern-US, dialectal, intransitive Example: He sets in that chair all day. Example: 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. 26. To rest or lie somewhere, on something, etc.; to occupy a certain place. Labels: Midwestern-US, Southern-US, dialectal, intransitive Example: 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. 27. To hunt game with the aid of a setter. 28. Of a dog, to indicate the position of game. Labels: ambitransitive Example: The dog sets the bird. Example: Your dog sets well. 29. To apply oneself; to undertake earnestly. Example: 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. 30. To fit music to words. Labels: ambitransitive Example: Set thy own songs, and sing them to thy lute. Example: That I might sing it (Madam) to a tune: Giue me a Note, your Ladiship can set 31. To place plants or shoots in the ground; to plant. Labels: ambitransitive Example: to set pear trees in an orchard Example: We saw him with eight men setting potatoes within a week of mid-summer. 32. To become fixed or rigid; to be fastened. 33. To have a certain direction of motion; to flow; to move on; to tend. Example: The current sets to the north; the tide sets to the windward. 34. To acknowledge a dancing partner by facing them and moving first to one side and then to the other, while they do the opposite. Labels: intransitive Example: Set to partners! was the next instruction from the caller. 35. To place or fix in a setting. Example: to set a precious stone in a border of metal Example: to set glass in a sash 36. To put in order in a particular manner; to prepare. Example: to set (that is, to hone) a razor Example: to set a saw 37. To extend and bring into position; to spread. Example: to set the sails of a ship 38. To give a pitch to, as a tune; to start by fixing the keynote. Example: […] 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. 39. To reduce from a dislocated or fractured state. Example: to set a broken bone 40. To sit or lie (easily etc.) on the stomach; to be digested in a certain manner. Labels: dialectal, intransitive Example: 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. 41. To lower into place and fix solidly, as the blocks of cut stone in a structure. 42. To wager in gambling; to risk. Labels: obsolete Example: I have set my life upon a cast, / And I will stand the hazard of the die. 43. To adorn with something infixed or affixed; to stud; to variegate with objects placed here and there. Example: High on their heads, with jewels richly set, / Each lady wore a radiant coronet. Example: pastoral dales thin set with modern farms 44. To value; to rate; used with at. Labels: obsolete Example: Be you contented, wearing now the garland, / To have a son set your decrees at naught. Example: I do not set my life at a pin's fee. 45. To establish as a rule; to furnish; to prescribe; to assign. Example: to set a good example 46. To suit; to become. Labels: Scotland Example: It sets him ill. 47. To cause (a domestic fowl) to sit on eggs to brood. Example: To set a hen. 48. To arrange the casting of a movie. Example: Paramont Pictures has set Jennifer Love Hewitt for a movie called Two Can Play This Game.