Set v. t. (past & past part. set; pres. part. setting)
1.
To cause to sit; to make to assume a specified position or attitude; to give site or place to; to place; to put; to fix; as, to set a house on a stone foundation; to set a book on a shelf; to set a dish on a table; to set a chest or trunk on its bottom or on end. "I do set my bow in the cloud."
2.
Hence, to attach or affix (something) to something else, or in or upon a certain place. "Set your affection on things above.""The Lord set a mark upon Cain."
3.
To make to assume specified place, condition, or occupation; to put in a certain condition or state (described by the accompanying words); 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.
To fix firmly; to make fast, permanent, or stable; to render motionless; to give an unchanging place, form, or condition to. Specifically:
(a)
To cause to stop or stick; to obstruct; to fasten to a spot; hence, to occasion difficulty to; to embarrass; as, to set a coach in the mud. "They show how hard they are set in this particular."
(b)
To fix beforehand; to determine; hence, to make unyielding or obstinate; to render stiff, unpliant, or rigid; as, to set one's countenance. "His eyes were set by reason of his age.""On these three objects his heart was set.""Make my heart as a millstone, set my face as a flint."
(c)
To fix in the ground, as a post or a tree; to plant; as, to set pear trees in an orchard.
(d)
To fix, as a precious stone, in a border of metal; to place in a setting; hence, to place in or amid something which serves as a setting; as, to set glass in a sash. "And him too rich a jewel to be set In vulgar metal for a vulgar use."
(e)
To render stiff or solid; especially, to convert into curd; to curdle; as, to set milk for cheese.
5.
To put into a desired position or condition; to adjust; to regulate; to adapt. Specifically:
(a)
To put in order in a particular manner; to prepare; as, to set (that is, to hone) a razor; to set a saw. "Tables for to sette, and beddes make."
(b)
To extend and bring into position; to spread; as, to set the sails of a ship.
(c)
To give a pitch to, as a tune; to start by fixing the keynote; as, to set a psalm.
(d)
To reduce from a dislocated or fractured state; to replace; as, to set a broken bone.
(e)
To make to agree with some standard; as, to set a watch or a clock.
(f)
(Masonry) To lower into place and fix solidly, as the blocks of cut stone in a structure.
6.
To stake at play; to wager; to risk. "I have set my life upon a cast, And I will stand the hazard of the die."
7.
To fit with music; to adapt, as words to notes; to prepare for singing. "Set thy own songs, and sing them to thy lute."
8.
To determine; to appoint; to assign; to fix; as, to set a time for a meeting; to set a price on a horse.
9.
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."
10.
To value; to rate; 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."
11.
To point out the seat or position of, as birds, or other game; said of hunting dogs.
12.
To establish as a rule; to furnish; to prescribe; to assign; as, to set an example; to set lessons to be learned.
13.
To suit; to become; as, it sets him ill. (Scot.)
14.
(Print.) To compose; to arrange in words, lines, etc.; as, to set type; to set a page.
To set against, to oppose; to set in comparison with, or to oppose to, as an equivalent in exchange; as, to set one thing against another.
To set agoing, to cause to move.
To set apart, to separate to a particular use; to separate from the rest; to reserve.
To set a saw, to bend each tooth a little, every alternate one being bent to one side, and the intermediate ones to the other side, so that the opening made by the saw may be a little wider than the thickness of the back, to prevent the saw from sticking.
To set aside.
(a)
To leave out of account; to pass by; to omit; to neglect; to reject; to annul. "Setting aside all other considerations, I will endeavor to know the truth, and yield to that."
(b)
To set apart; to reserve; as, to set aside part of one's income.
To set at ease, to quiet; to tranquilize; as, to set the heart at ease.
To set at naught, to undervalue; to contemn; to despise. "Ye have set at naught all my counsel."
To set a trapTo set a snare, or To set a gin, to put it in a proper condition or position to catch prey; hence, to lay a plan to deceive and draw another into one's power.
To set at work, or To set to work.
(a)
To cause to enter on work or action, or to direct how tu enter on work.
(b)
To apply one's self; used reflexively.
To set before.
(a)
To bring out to view before; to exhibit.
(b)
To propose for choice to; to offer to.
To set by.
(a)
To set apart or on one side; to reject.
(b)
To attach the value of (anything) to. "I set not a straw by thy dreamings."
To set by the compass, to observe and note the bearing or situation of by the compass.
To set case, to suppose; to assume. Cf. Put case, under Put, v. t. (Obs.)
To set down.
(a)
To enter in writing; to register. "Some rules were to be set down for the government of the army."
(b)
To fix; to establish; to ordain. "This law we may name eternal, being that order which God... hath set down with himself, for himself to do all things by."
(c)
To humiliate.
To set eyes on, to see; to behold; to fasten the eyes on.
To set fire to, or To set on fire, to communicate fire to; fig., to inflame; to enkindle the passions of; to irritate.
To set flying (Naut.), to hook to halyards, sheets, etc., instead of extending with rings or the like on a stay; said of a sail.
To set forth.
(a)
To manifest; to offer or present to view; to exhibt; to display.
(b)
To publish; to promulgate; to make appear.
(c)
To send out; to prepare and send. (Obs.) "The Venetian admiral had a fleet of sixty galleys, set forth by the Venetians."
To set forward.
(a)
To cause to advance.
(b)
To promote.
To set free, to release from confinement, imprisonment, or bondage; to liberate; to emancipate.
To set in, to put in the way; to begin; to give a start to. (Obs.) "If you please to assist and set me in, I will recollect myself."
To set in order, to adjust or arrange; to reduce to method. "The rest will I set in order when I come."
To set milk.
(a)
To expose it in open dishes in order that the cream may rise to the surface.
(b)
To cause it to become curdled as by the action of rennet. See 4 (e).
To set much by or To set little by, to care much, or little, for.
To set of, to value; to set by. (Obs.) "I set not an haw of his proverbs."
To set off.
(a)
To separate from a whole; to assign to a particular purpose; to portion off; as, to set off a portion of an estate.
(b)
To adorn; to decorate; to embellish. "They... set off the worst faces with the best airs."
(c)
To give a flattering description of.
To set off against, to place against as an equivalent; as, to set off one man's services against another's.
To set on or To set upon.
(a)
To incite; to instigate. "Thou, traitor, hast set on thy wife to this."
(b)
To employ, as in a task. " Set on thy wife to observe."
(c)
To fix upon; to attach strongly to; as, to set one's heart or affections on some object. See definition 2, above.
... service in any way, either in a chosen occupation or, on failure to choose, in an assigned one, he would be furnished with such a collection of seeds and tools as he might choose and turned loose on a reservation expressly prepared for such persons, corresponding a little perhaps with the reservations set apart for such Indians in your day as were unwilling to accept civilization. There he would be left to work out a better solution of the problem of existence than our society offers, if he could do so. We think we have ... — Equality • Edward Bellamy Read full book for free!
... while others, absorbed in themselves, became night, "swelling up with pride," as Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. iv, 24). Hence the first act was common to them all; but in their second they were separated. Consequently they were all of them good in the first instant; but in the second the good were set apart... — Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas Read full book for free!
... his humble style, the minister was held in honour. As the solemn time of ordination drew near there were consultations of ministers with closed doors, and days set apart for fasting and prayer throughout the whole Church. His duties were many and various. He was commonly spoken of, not as a priest, but as the "servant" of the Church. He was not a priest in the Romish sense ... — History of the Moravian Church • J. E. Hutton Read full book for free!
... contain within itself the germ and possible explanation of a thousand vague aspirations, yearnings which began about this time to spring up in her mind, and which almost unconsciously linked themselves with that solemn hour the remembrance of which, after her conversation with her father, she had set apart in her own heart, to be pondered on from time to time, but in silence,—a reticence too natural and legitimate not to be followed by a hundred others of a ... — My Little Lady • Eleanor Frances Poynter Read full book for free!
... wrong family, nor a wedding where there was none. He was wise as a serpent. Where he got his wisdom, no one knows. He had the town catalogued in a sort of rogues' directory—the liars and the honest men set apart from one another, and it was a classification that would not have tallied with the church directories nor with the town blue-book nor with the commercial agency's reports. The sheep and the goats in the Young Prince's record would have been strangers to one another ... — In Our Town • William Allen White Read full book for free!
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