set

• enPR: sĕt, IPA^(key): /sɛt/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɛt
• Homophone: sett

From Middle English setten, from Old English settan, from Proto-Germanic *satjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *sodéyeti, causative of *sed- (“to sit”).

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.

   • Bible, Genesis iv. 15

     The Lord set a mark upon Cain.

3. (transitive) To put in a specified condition or state; to cause to be.
   • Bible, Deuteronomy xxviii. 1

     The Lord thy God will set thee on high.

   • Bible, Matthew x. 35

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

   • Coleridge

     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

6. (transitive) To determine or settle.

   to set the rent

7. (transitive) To adjust.

   I set the alarm at 6 a.m.

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

   Please set the table for our guests.

10. (transitive) To introduce or describe.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter II, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292, book III:

      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.

    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 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30:

      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.

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

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

    The glue sets in four minutes.

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

    to set milk for cheese

20. (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.

21. (transitive, bridge) To defeat a contract.
22. (obsolete, now followed by "out", as in set out) To begin to move; to go forth.
    • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V

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

23. (transitive, botany) To produce after pollination.
    • 2012, Daniel Chamovitz, What a Plant Knows, p. 155

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

    to set seed

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 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.

25. (intransitive, Southern US, Midwestern US, dialectal) To sit (be in a seated position).
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

      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.

    He sets in that chair all day.

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

    The dog sets the bird.

    Your dog sets well.

28. (obsolete) To apply oneself; to undertake earnestly; to set out.
    • Hammond

      If 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.

29. (transitive, intransitive) To fit music to words.
    • Dryden

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

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

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

    to set pear trees in an orchard

    • Old proverb

      Sow dry, and set wet.

31. To become fixed or rigid; to be fastened.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

32. 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.

33. To place or fix in a setting.

    to set a precious stone in a border of metal

    to set glass in a sash

    • Dryden

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

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

    to set (that is, to hone) a razor

    to set a saw

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

    to set the sails of a ship

36. To give a pitch to, as a tune; to start by fixing the keynote.

    to set a psalm

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Fielding to this entry?)

37. To reduce from a dislocated or fractured state.

    to set a broken bone

38. (masonry) To lower into place and fix solidly, as the blocks of cut stone in a structure.
39. (obsolete) To wager in gambling; to risk.
    • Shakespeare

      I have set my life upon a cast, / And I will stand the hazard of the die.

40. To adorn with something infixed or affixed; to stud; to variegate with objects placed here and there.
    • Dryden

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

    • Wordsworth

      pastoral dales thin set with modern farms

41. (obsolete) To value; to rate; used with at.
    • Shakespeare

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

    • Shakespeare

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

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

    to set a good example; to set lessons to be learned

43. (Scotland) To suit; to become.

    It sets him ill.

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 the teeth of a saw protrude to the side in order to create the kerf.
8. (obsolete, rare) That which is staked; a wager; hence, a gambling game.
   • Shakespeare

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

   • Dryden

     That was but civil war, an equal set.

9. (engineering) Permanent change of shape caused by excessive strain, as from compression, tension, bending, twisting, etc.

   the set of a spring

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 2, Noun)
15. (colloquial) The manner, state, or quality of setting or fitting; fit.

    the set of a coat

16. The camber of a curved roofing tile.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.
   • Tennyson

     the set of day

   • Shakespeare

     The weary sun hath made a golden set.

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

     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 1, 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

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 (sport)) 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.
    • 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.

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

    He plays the set on Saturdays.

19. (Britain, 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:

      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, 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”).[1]

• (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

set (third-person singular simple present sets, present participle setting, simple past and past participle setted)

1. (Britain, education) To divide a class group in a subject according to ability
   • 2008, Patricia Murphy, Robert McCormick, Knowledge and Practice: Representations and Identities

     In setted classes, students are brought together because they are believed to be of similar 'ability'. Yet, setted lessons are often conducted as though students are not only similar, but identical—in terms of ability, preferred learning style and pace of working.

   • 2002, Jo Boaler, Experiencing School Mathematics: Traditional and Reform Approaches and Their Impact on Student Learning

     At Amber Hill, setting was a high-profile concept, and the students were frequently reminded of the set to which they belonged.

• -est, EST, ETS, ETs, Est, Est., StE, Ste, Ste., TEs, TSE, Tse, est, est., tse

set (plural [please provide])

1. The name of the Latin-script letter Z.

From Old Occitan, from Latin septem (“seven”), from Proto-Indo-European *septḿ̥.

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛt/
• Rhymes: -ɛt

set m or f

1. seven

set m (plural sets)

1. seven

From Latin sitis, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰgʷʰítis.

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /ˈsət/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛt/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈset/

set f (plural sets)

1. thirst

• “set” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “set” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “set” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “set” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

set

1. sofa, couch, settee

• IPA^(key): /sɛt/

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• Homophone: sed
• Rhymes: -ɛt

From English set.

set m

1. (tennis, volleyball) set (part of a match in sports like tennis and volleyball)

• sada f

set

1. genitive plural of sto

set

1. past participle of se

• sådan set

• IPA^(key): /sɛt/

• Audio

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• Homophones: cet, cette, sept, sète

set m (plural sets)

1. (tennis) set

• manche