set

verb

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

   “Set the tray there.”

   “He helped his mother set the table for lunch.”

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.”

   “The Lord set a mark upon Cain.”

3. (transitive)To put in a specified condition or state; to cause to be.

   “The Lord thy God will set thee on high.”

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

   “Every incident sets him thinking.”

4. (transitive)To start (a fire).
5. (dated, transitive)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.”

   “I set the alarm for 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.

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

    “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. (transitive)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.”

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.

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

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

    “This glue sets in five minutes.”

    “This jelly sets within a few hours when refrigerated.”

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)To defeat a contract.
22. (obsolete)To begin to move; to go forth.

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

23. (transitive)To produce after pollination.

    “to set seed”

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

24. (intransitive)To be fixed for growth; to strike root; to begin to germinate or form.

    “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. (Midwestern-US, Southern-US, dialectal, intransitive)To sit (be in a seated position).

    “He sets in that chair all day.”

    “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.”

    “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.”

26. (Midwestern-US, Southern-US, dialectal, intransitive)To rest or lie somewhere, on something, etc.; to occupy a certain place.

    “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. (ambitransitive)Of a dog, to indicate the position of game.

    “The dog sets the bird.”

    “Your dog sets well.”

29. To apply oneself; to undertake earnestly.

    “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. (ambitransitive)To fit music to words.

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

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

31. (ambitransitive)To place plants or shoots in the ground; to plant.

    “to set pear trees in an orchard”

    “We saw him with eight men setting potatoes within a week of mid-summer.”

    “At Eastertime one year, she helped him to set potatoes.”

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. (intransitive)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.”

35. To place or fix in a setting.

    “to set a precious stone in a border of metal”

    “to set glass in a sash”

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

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

    “to set (that is, to hone) a razor”

    “to set a saw”

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

    “to set the sails of a ship”

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

    “[…] 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.

    “to set a broken bone”

40. (dialectal, intransitive)To sit or lie (easily etc.) on the stomach; to be digested in a certain manner.

    “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. (obsolete)To wager in gambling; to risk.

    “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.

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

    “pastoral dales thin set with modern farms”

44. (obsolete)To value; to rate; used with at.

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

    “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.”

48. (UK)To divide a class group in a subject according to ability

    “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.”

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

    “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.”

noun

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”

   “Say, you can watch 60 Minutes / Even Captain Kangaroo / But there's only one set, so whatever you watch / Well, you know I gotta watch it too”

3. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of sett (“a hole made and lived in by a badger”).
4. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of sett (“pattern of threads and yarns”).
5. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of sett (“piece of quarried stone”).
6. 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. A permanent change of shape caused by excessive strain, as from compression, tension, bending, twisting, etc.

   “the set of a spring”

   “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. A piece placed temporarily upon the head of a pile when the latter cannot otherwise be reached by the weight, or hammer.
11. (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”

    “Mr. Joolby lay on the floor beside his special chair, his face doubly terrible in its rigid set, his body writhing this way and that with spasmodic jerks and contortions.”

    “So much of our culture, hidden by necessity for so long, involves subtle codes and signals: the set of her shoulders, the sway of his hips.”

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.

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

    “That was but civil war, an equal set.”

    “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.”

20. A tool for dressing forged iron.
21. A young plant fit for setting out; a slip; shoot.
22. A rudimentary fruit.
23. The setting of the sun or other luminary; (by extension) the close of the day.

    “The weary sun hath made a golden set.”

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

24. (figuratively, literally)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.”

    “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[…]””

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

    “a set of tables”

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

    “a set of tools”

27. An object made up of several parts.

    “a set of steps”

28. 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.
29. (informal, plural)Set theory.
30. A group of people, usually meeting socially or connected through some shared interest, activity, attribute, etc.

    “the country set”

    “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.”

    ““Good gracious, child, you didn't join the Theosophists and kiss Buddha's big toe, did you ? I tried to get into their set once, but they cast me out for a sceptic — without a chance of improving my poor little mind, too.””

    “They were very private people, though they did have their circle of friends at Bilignin. They had little or no association with the Natalie Barney set, in their eyes much too frivolous.”

31. The scenery for a film or play.
32. 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.
33. The initial or basic formation of dancers.
34. A group of repetitions of a single exercise performed one after the other without rest.

    “Meronym: reps”

    “This is the fourth set of benchpresses.”

    “The old practitioners we sometimes still see, though in far fewer numbers: still working out too hard, a lost expression on their faces as they rest between sets, as if unable to snap out of the broken promise.”

35. A complete series of games, forming part of a match.
36. A complete series of points, forming part of a match.
37. The act of directing the ball to a teammate for an attack.
38. A musical performance by a band, disc jockey, etc., consisting of several musical pieces.

    “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.”

39. A drum kit, a drum set.

    “He plays the set on Saturdays.”

40. (UK)A class group in a subject where pupils are divided by ability.

    “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.”

41. (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”).
42. (uncountable)Gene for a human protein involved in apoptosis, transcription and nucleosome assembly.
43. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable)Initialism of Simulated Emergency Test, an amateur radio training exercise.

adj

1. Fixed in position.

   “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”

   “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 set book”

   “The second level of reading we will call Inspectional Reading. It is characterized by its special emphasis on time. When reading at this level, the student is allowed a set time to complete an assigned amount of reading. He might be allowed fifteen minutes to read this book, for instance—or even a book twice as long.”

6. Fixed in one’s opinion.

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

7. Fixed in a certain style.

name

1. (Egyptian)An ancient Egyptian god, variously described as the god of chaos, the god of thunder and storms, or the god of destruction.
2. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of Strategic Energy Technologies Plan of the European Union.
3. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of Stock Exchange of Thailand, the national stock exchange of Thailand.