set

English

 set on Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• enPR: sĕt, IPA^(key): /sɛt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: sett
• Rhymes: -ɛt

Etymology 1

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”).

Verb

set (third-person singular simple present sets, present participle setting, simple past set, past participle set or (dialectal) setten)

1. (transitive) To put (something) down, to rest.

   Synonyms: put, lay, set down

   Antonym: pick up

   Set the tray there.

2. (transitive) To attach or affix (something) to something else, or in or upon a certain place.

   I have set my heart on running the marathon.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Genesis 4:15:

     The Lord set a mark upon Cain.

3. (transitive) To put in a specified condition or state; to cause to be.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Deuteronomy 28:1:

     The Lord thy God will set thee on high.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Matthew 10:35:

     I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother.

   • 1827, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Hamlet:

     Every incident sets him thinking.

4. (transitive) To start (a fire).

   Synonym: light

   Antonyms: extinguish, put out, quench

5. (transitive, dated) To cause to stop or stick; to obstruct; to fasten to a spot.

   to set a coach in the mud

7. (transitive) To determine or settle.

   to set the rent

8. (transitive) To adjust.

   I set the alarm at 6 a.m.

   (i.e. I programmed it at that hour to go off at a later time)

   I set the alarm for 6 a.m.

   (i.e. I programmed it earlier to go off at that hour.)

9. (transitive) To punch (a nail) into wood so that its head is below the surface.
10. (transitive) To arrange with dishes and cutlery, to set the table.

    Please set the table for our guests.

11. (transitive) To introduce or describe.

    I’ll tell you what happened, but first let me set the scene.

    • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter II, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A Millar, , →OCLC:

      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.

12. (transitive) simple past and past participle of set To locate (a play, etc.); to assign a backdrop to, geographically or temporally.

    He says he will set his next film in France.

    Her debut novel is set during the U.S. Civil War.

13. (transitive) To compile, to make (a puzzle or challenge).

    This crossword was set by Araucaria.

14. (transitive) To prepare (a stage or film set).
15. (transitive) To fit (someone) up in a situation.
16. (transitive) To arrange (type).

    It was a complex page, but he set it quickly.

17. (transitive) To devise and assign (work) to.

    The teacher set her students the task of drawing a foot.

18. (transitive, volleyball) To direct (the ball) to a teammate for an attack.
19. (intransitive) To solidify.

    The glue sets in five minutes.

20. (transitive) To render stiff or solid; especially, to convert into curd; to curdle.

    to set milk for cheese

21. (intransitive) Of a heavenly body, to disappear below the horizon of a planet, etc, as the latter rotates.

    The moon sets at eight o'clock tonight.

22. (transitive, bridge) To defeat a contract.
23. (obsolete, now followed by "out", as in set out) To begin to move; to go forth.
    • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

      The king is set from London, and the scene is now transported, gentles, to Southampton

24. (transitive, botany) To produce after pollination.

    to set seed

    • 2012, Daniel Chamovitz, What a Plant Knows, page 155:

      Many fruit trees will only flower and set fruit following a cold winter.

25. (intransitive, of fruit) To be fixed for growth; to strike root; to begin to germinate or form.
    • 1906, Canada. Dept. of Agriculture. Fruit Branch, Fruit crop report:

      In the Annapolis Valley, in spite of an irregular bloom, the fruit has set well and has, as yet, been little affected by scab.

26. (intransitive, Southern US, Midwestern US, dialects) To sit (be in a seated position).

    He sets in that chair all day.

    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

      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.

    • 1987, Toni Morrison, Beloved, page 227:

      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.

27. (intransitive, Southern US, Midwestern US, dialects) To rest or lie somewhere, on something, etc.; to occupy a certain place.
    • 1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall:

      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.

28. To hunt game with the aid of a setter.
29. (hunting, transitive, intransitive) Of a dog, to indicate the position of game.

    The dog sets the bird.

    Your dog sets well.

30. To apply oneself; to undertake earnestly.
    • 1654, H[enry] Hammond, Of Fundamentals in a Notion Referring to Practise, London: J Flesher for Richard Royston, , →OCLC:

      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.

31. (transitive, intransitive) To fit music to words.
    • 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 Hills, , →OCLC:

      Set thy own songs, and sing them to thy lute.

    • 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      That I might sing it (Madam) to a tune:
      Giue me a Note, your Ladiship can set

32. (transitive, intransitive) To place plants or shoots in the ground; to plant.

    to set pear trees in an orchard

    • 1774, John Robinson, Thomas Rispin, A Journey Through Nova-Scotia Containing a Particular Account of the Country and its Inhabitants, York: C. Etherington, page 19:

      Mr. Forster, from Newcastle, made a purchase here last year. We saw him with eight men setting potatoes within a week of mid-summer.

33. To become fixed or rigid; to be fastened.
34. To have a certain direction of motion; to flow; to move on; to tend.

    The current sets to the north; the tide sets to the windward.

35. (intransitive, country dancing) 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.

    Set to partners! was the next instruction from the caller.

36. To place or fix in a setting.

    to set a precious stone in a border of metal

    to set glass in a sash

    • 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. , London: Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC, Act IV, page 58:

      And him too rich a jewel to be set / In vulgar metal for a vulgar use.

37. To put in order in a particular manner; to prepare.

    to set (that is, to hone) a razor

    to set a saw

38. To extend and bring into position; to spread.

    to set the sails of a ship

39. To give a pitch to, as a tune; to start by fixing the keynote.
    • 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 Millar, , →OCLC, book I, page 25:

      […] 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.

40. To reduce from a dislocated or fractured state.

    to set a broken bone

41. (masonry) To lower into place and fix solidly, as the blocks of cut stone in a structure.
42. (obsolete) To wager in gambling; to risk.
    • 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      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.
    • 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:

      High on their heads, with jewels richly set, / Each lady wore a radiant coronet.

    • 1815, William Wordsworth, Poems of the Imagination:

      pastoral dales thin set with modern farms

44. (obsolete) To value; to rate; used with at.
    • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      Be you contented, wearing now the garland, / To have a son set your decrees at naught.

    • 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      I do not set my life at a pin's fee.

45. To establish as a rule; to furnish; to prescribe; to assign.

    to set a good example

46. (Scotland) To suit; to become.

    It sets him ill.

47. To cause (a domestic fowl) to sit on eggs to brood.

    To set a hen.

Synonyms

• (of heavenly bodies, to disappear below the horizon): go down, go west

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Japanese: セット (setto)
  • → Hokkien: siat-to͘h

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English set, sette, from Old English set (“seat, place of residence, camp, settlement, entrenchment, stable, pen”), from Proto-West Germanic *set (“seat”), from Proto-Germanic *setą (“seat”).

Noun

English Wikipedia has an article on:

set

Wikipedia

set (plural sets)

1. A punch for setting nails in wood.

   nail set

2. A device for receiving broadcast radio waves (or, more recently, broadcast data); a radio or television.

   television set

3. Alternative form of sett (“a hole made and lived in by a badger”)
4. Alternative form of sett (“pattern of threads and yarns”)
5. Alternative form of sett (“piece of quarried stone”)
6. (horticulture) A small tuber or bulb used instead of seed, particularly onion sets and potato sets.
7. The amount by which the teeth of a saw protrude to the side in order to create the kerf.
8. (engineering) A permanent change of shape caused by excessive strain, as from compression, tension, bending, twisting, etc.

   the set of a spring

   • 1986 March 29, National Transportation Safety Board, “1.12 Wreckage and Impact Information”, in Aircraft Accident Report: China Airlines Boeing 747-SP, N4522V, 300 Nautical Miles Northwest of San Francisco, California, February 19, 1985‎, archived from the original on 10 July 2022, page 12:

     The wings were bent or set permanently 2 to 3 inches upward at the wingtips; however, the set was within the manufacturer's allowable tolerances.

9. A bias of mind; an attitude or pattern of behaviour.
10. (piledriving) A piece placed temporarily upon the head of a pile when the latter cannot otherwise be reached by the weight, or hammer.
11. (printing, dated) The width of the body of a type.
12. A young oyster when first attached.
13. Collectively, the crop of young oysters in any locality.
14. A series or group of something. (Note the similar meaning in Etymology 4, Noun)
15. (colloquial) The manner, state, or quality of setting or fitting; fit.

    the set of a coat

16. The pattern of a tartan, etc.
17. The camber of a curved roofing tile.
18. The full number of eggs set under a hen.
19. (obsolete, rare) That which is staked; a wager; hence, a gambling game.
    • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      We will in France, by God's grace, play a set / Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.

    • 1687, [John Dryden], “(please specify the page number)”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: Jacob Tonson , →OCLC:

      That was but civil war, an equal set.

    • 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1857, →OCLC:

      Thenceforth the Dowager, with a light and careless humour, often recounted to her particular acquaintance how, after a hard trial, she had found it impossible to know those people who belonged to Henry’s wife, and who had made that desperate set to catch him.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English sett, from Old English ġesett, past participle of settan.

Adjective

set (comparative more set, superlative most set)

1. Fixed in position.
   • 2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 34:

     Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.  ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.

2. Rigid, solidified.
3. Ready, prepared.

   on your marks, get set, go!;  on your marks, set, go!

4. Intent, determined (to do something).

   set on getting to his destination

   • 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lloyd Osbourne, “In which Jim and I Take Different Ways”, in The Wrecker, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, , →OCLC, page 179:

     And she likes you so much, and thinks you so accomplished and distingué-looking, and was just as set as I was to have you for best man.

5. Prearranged.

   a set menu ― a meal that is instituted by a restaurateur for a limited occasion

   a set book ― a required reading for a course in an educational institution

6. Fixed in one’s opinion.

   I’m set against the idea of smacking children to punish them.

7. (of hair) Fixed in a certain style.

Synonyms

• (intent, determined): determined, intent
• (prearranged): dictated, prearranged, predetermined, prescribed, specified
• (fixed in one's opinion): fixed, rigid

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 4

From Middle English set, sete, sette (“that which is set, the act of setting, seat”), from Old English set (“setting, seat, a place where people remain, habitation, camp, entrenchment, a place where animals are kept, stall, fold”) and Old English seten (“a set, shoot, slip, branch; a nursery, plantation; that which is planted or set; a cultivated place; planting, cultivation; a setting, putting; a stopping; occupied land”), related to Old English settan (“to set”). Compare Middle Low German gesette (“a set, suite”), Old English gesetl (“assembly”). According to Skeat, in senses denoting a group of things or persons, representing an alteration of sept, from Old French sette (“a religious sect”), from Medieval Latin secta (“retinue”), from Latin secta (“a faction”). See sect. It is quite possible that the modern word is more of a merger between both, however.

Noun

set (plural sets)

1. A young plant fit for setting out; a slip; shoot.
2. A rudimentary fruit.
3. The setting of the sun or other luminary; (by extension) the close of the day.
   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Adeline”, in Poems. , volume I, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, page 41:

     And a rose-bush leans upon, / Thou that faintly smilest still, / As a Naiad in a well, / Looking at the set of day, […]

   • 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     The weary sun hath made a golden set.

4. (literally and figuratively) General movement; direction; drift; tendency.
   • 1840, Thomas De Quincey, Style:

     Here and there, amongst individuals alive to the particular evils of the age, and watching the very set of the current, there may have been even a more systematic counteraction applied to the mischief.

   • 1951, Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny, page 238:

     He put his eye to the alidade. “I thought so! Zero five four and that's allowing nothing for set and drift along the line of bearing. We're inside the departure point now […] ”

5. A matching collection of similar things. (Note the similar meaning in Etymology 2, Noun.)

   a set of tables

6. A collection of various objects for a particular purpose.

   a set of tools

7. An object made up of several parts.

   a set of steps

9. (set theory) A collection of zero or more objects, possibly infinite in size, and disregarding any order or repetition of the objects which may be contained within it.
10. (in plural, “sets”, mathematics, informal) Set theory.
11. A group of people, usually meeting socially.

    the country set

    • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XIX, in The History of Pendennis. , volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

      That he took perfumed baths is a truth; and he used to say that he took them after meeting certain men of a very low set in hall.

12. The scenery for a film or play.
13. the general locations and area where a movie’s, a film’s, or a video’s scenery is arranged to be filmed also including places for actors, assorted crew, director, producers which are typically not filmed.
14. (dance) The initial or basic formation of dancers.
16. (exercise) A group of repetitions of a single exercise performed one after the other without rest.
    • 1974, Charles Gaines, George Butler, Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding, page 22:

      This is the fourth set of benchpresses.

18. (tennis) A complete series of games, forming part of a match.
19. (volleyball) A complete series of points, forming part of a match.
20. (volleyball) The act of directing the ball to a teammate for an attack.
22. (music) A musical performance by a band, disc jockey, etc., consisting of several musical pieces.
    • 2017 June 26, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and more”, in the Guardian‎:

      You heard “oh, Jeremy Corbyn” everywhere: at the silent disco, during Radiohead’s Friday night headlining set, midway through the Other stage appearance by rapper Stormzy, who gamely joined in.

23. (music) A drum kit, a drum set.

    He plays the set on Saturdays.

24. (UK, education) A class group in a subject where pupils are divided by ability.
    • 2012 April 26, “Themes: Pupil grouping and organisation of classes”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎, Department for Education, archived from the original on 14 June 2012:

      Looking at pupil attainment, the study found that students with the same Key Stage 3 scores could have their GCSE grade raised or lowered by up to half a grade as a result of being placed in a higher or lower set.

25. (poker, slang) Three of a kind, especially if two cards are in one's hand and the third is on the board. Compare trips (“three of a kind, especially with two cards on the board and one in one's hand”).

Synonyms

• (close of the day): dusk, eve, evening, sundown, sunset
• (general movement): direction, drift, heading, motion, movement, path, tendency, trend
• (matching collection of similar things): suite
• (set theory, in plural): set theory
• (group of people, usually meeting socially): club, coterie
• (scenery): scenery
• (performance of several musical pieces): gig, session
• (drum kit): drums, drum kit, drum set
• (three of a kind): three of a kind

Derived terms

Translations