Set

Pronunciation

• enPR: sÄ•t, IPA: /sÉ›t/
• Rhymes: -É›t
• Homophones: sett
• (NZ) Homophones: sit

• From Middle English setten, from Old English settan, from Proto-Germanic *satjanÄ…, from Proto-Indo-European *sodéye-, causative of *sed- ("to sit").
• From Middle English sett, from Old English gesett, past participle of settan.

Full definition of set

Verb

1. (transitive) To put (something) down, to rest.
   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.
• Bible, Genesis iv. 15The Lord set a mark upon Cain.
3. (transitive) To put in a specified condition or state; to cause to be.
• Bible, Deuteronomy xxviii. 1The Lord thy God will set thee on high.
• Bible, Matthew x. 35I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother.
• ColeridgeEvery incident sets him thinking.
4. (transitive, dated) To cause to stop or stick; to obstruct; to fasten to a spot.to set a coach in the mud
5. (transitive) To determine or settle.
   to set the rent
6. (transitive) To adjust.
   I set the alarm at 6 a.m.
7. (transitive) To punch (a nail) into wood so that its head is below the surface.
8. (transitive) To arrange with dishes and cutlery.
   Please set the table for our guests.
9. (transitive) To introduce or describe.
• Fielding Tom Jones|III|iiAn 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.
10. I’ll tell you what happened, but first let me set the scene.
11. (transitive) To locate (a play, etc.); to assign a backdrop to.
    He says he will set his next film in France.
12. (transitive) To compile, to make (a puzzle or challenge).This crossword was set by Araucaria.
13. (transitive) To prepare (a stage or film set).
14. (transitive) To fit (someone) up in a situation.
15. (transitive) To arrange (type).
    It was a complex page, but he set it quickly.
16. (transitive) To devise and assign (work) to.
• 2013-07-19, Peter Wilby, Finland spreads word on schools, Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.
17. 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 four 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.
• c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V (play)The king is set from London, and the scene is now transported, gentles, to Southampton
24. (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 reportIn the Annapolis Valley, in spite of an irregular bloom, the fruit has set well and has, as yet, been little affected by scab.
25. (intransitive, Southern US, Midwestern US, dialects) To sit (be in a seated position).
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 7, 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. He sets in that chair all day.
27. To hunt game with the aid of a setter.
28. (hunting, ambitransitive) Of a dog, to indicate the position of game.The dog sets the bird.Your dog sets well.
29. (obsolete) To apply oneself; to undertake earnestly; to set out.
• HammondIf he sets industriously and sincerely to perform the commands of Christ, he can have no ground of doubting but it shall prove successful to him.
30. (ambitransitive) To fit music to words.
• DrydenSet thy own songs, and sing them to thy lute.
31. (ambitransitive) To place plants or shoots in the ground; to plant.to set pear trees in an orchard
• Old proverbSow dry, and set wet.
32. To become fixed or rigid; to be fastened.
33. 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.
34. To place or fix in a setting.to set a precious stone in a border of metalto set glass in a sash
• DrydenAnd him too rich a jewel to be set
  In vulgar metal for a vulgar use.
35. To put in order in a particular manner; to prepare.to set (that is, to hone) a razorto set a saw
36. To extend and bring into position; to spread.to set the sails of a ship
37. To give a pitch to, as a tune; to start by fixing the keynote.to set a psalm
38. To reduce from a dislocated or fractured state.to set a broken bone
39. (masonry) To lower into place and fix solidly, as the blocks of cut stone in a structure.
40. (obsolete) To wager in gambling; to risk.
• ShakespeareI have set my life upon a cast,
  And I will stand the hazard of the die.
41. To adorn with something infixed or affixed; to stud; to variegate with objects placed here and there.
• DrydenHigh on their heads, with jewels richly set,
  Each lady wore a radiant coronet.
• Wordsworthpastoral dales thin set with modern farms
42. (obsolete) To value; to rate; used with at.
• ShakespeareBe you contented, wearing now the garland,
  To have a son set your decrees at naught.
• ShakespeareI do not set my life at a pin's fee.
43. To establish as a rule; to furnish; to prescribe; to assign.to set a good example; to set lessons to be learned
44. (Scotland) To suit; to become.It sets him ill.

Derived terms

Noun

1. A punch for setting nails in wood.nail set
2. A device for receiving broadcast radio waves; a radio or television.television set
3. A sett; a hole made and lived in by a badger.
4. (horticulture) A small tuber or bulb used instead of seed, particularly onion sets and potato sets.
5. The amount the teeth of a saw protrude to the side in order to create the kerf.
6. (obsolete, rare) That which is staked; a wager; hence, a gambling game.
• ShakespeareWe will in France, by God's grace, play a set
  Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.
• DrydenThat was but civil war, an equal set.
7. (engineering) Permanent change of shape caused by excessive strain, as from compression, tension, bending, twisting, etc.the set of a spring
8. (piledriving) A piece placed temporarily upon the head of a pile when the latter cannot otherwise be reached by the weight, or hammer.
9. (printing, dated) The width of the body of a type.
10. A young oyster when first attached.
11. Collectively, the crop of young oysters in any locality.

Adjective

1. Fixed in position.
• 2013-07-19, Ian Sample, Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains, 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 mark, get set, go
4. Intent, determined (to do something).
   set on getting to his destination
5. Prearranged.
   a set menu
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

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.

Noun

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.
• Tennysonthe set of day
• ShakespeareThe weary sun hath made a golden set.
4. (literally and figuratively) General movement; direction; drift; tendency.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. — Thomas De Quincey.
5. A matching collection of similar things.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
8. (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.
9. (in plural, “sets”, mathematics, informal) Set theory.
10. A group of people, usually meeting socially.the country set
11. The scenery for a film or play.
12. (dance) The initial or basic formation of dancers.
13. (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.
14. (tennis) A complete series of games, forming part of a match.
15. (volleyball) A complete series of points, forming part of a match.
16. (volleyball) The act of directing the ball to a teammate for an attack.
17. (music) A musical performance by a band, disc jockey, etc., consisting of several musical pieces.
18. (music) A drum kit, a drum set.He plays the set on Saturdays.
19. (UK, education) A class group in a subject where pupils are divided by ability.
• 2012-04-26, Themes: Pupil grouping and organisation of classes, 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.
20. (poker, slang) Three of a kind in poker. In community card poker games, the term is usually reserved for a situation in which a pair in a player's hand is matched by a single card on the board. Compare with trips. Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. ISBN 978-1880069523

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

Hypernyms

• (set theory) multiset, bag

Derived terms

Anagrams

• EST, Est, ETS, StE, Ste, Ste., TSE