- To set about
- Set Set (s[e^]t), v. i.
1. To pass below the horizon; to go down; to decline; to sink
out of sight; to come to an end.
[1913 Webster]
Ere the weary sun set in the west. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Thus this century sets with little mirth, and the next is likely to arise with more mourning. --Fuller. [1913 Webster]
2. To fit music to words. [Obs.] --Shak. [1913 Webster]
3. To place plants or shoots in the ground; to plant. ``To sow dry, and set wet.'' --Old Proverb. [1913 Webster]
4. To be fixed for growth; to strike root; to begin to germinate or form; as, cuttings set well; the fruit has set well (i. e., not blasted in the blossom). [1913 Webster]
5. To become fixed or rigid; to be fastened. [1913 Webster]
A gathering and serring of the spirits together to resist, maketh the teeth to set hard one against another. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]
6. To congeal; to concrete; to solidify; -- of cements, glues, gels, concrete, substances polymerizing into plastics, etc. [1913 Webster +PJC]
That fluid substance in a few minutes begins to set. --Boyle. [1913 Webster]
7. To have a certain direction in motion; to flow; to move on; to tend; as, the current sets to the north; the tide sets to the windward. [1913 Webster]
8. To begin to move; to go out or forth; to start; -- now followed by out. [1913 Webster]
The king is set from London. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
9. To indicate the position of game; -- said of a dog; as, the dog sets well; also, to hunt game by the aid of a setter. [1913 Webster]
10. To apply one's self; to undertake earnestly; -- now followed by out. [1913 Webster]
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. --Hammond. [1913 Webster]
11. To fit or suit one; to sit; as, the coat sets well.
Note: [Colloquially used, but improperly, for sit.] [1913 Webster]
Note: The use of the verb set for sit in such expressions as, the hen is setting on thirteen eggs; a setting hen, etc., although colloquially common, and sometimes tolerated in serious writing, is not to be approved. [1913 Webster]
{To set about}, to commence; to begin.
{To set forward}, to move or march; to begin to march; to advance.
{To set forth}, to begin a journey.
{To set in}. (a) To begin; to enter upon a particular state; as, winter set in early. (b) To settle one's self; to become established. ``When the weather was set in to be very bad.'' --Addison. (c) To flow toward the shore; -- said of the tide.
{To set off}. (a) To enter upon a journey; to start. (b) (Typog.) To deface or soil the next sheet; -- said of the ink on a freshly printed sheet, when another sheet comes in contact with it before it has had time to dry.
{To set on} or {To set upon}. (a) To begin, as a journey or enterprise; to set about. [1913 Webster]
He that would seriously set upon the search of truth. --Locke. [1913 Webster] (b) To assault; to make an attack. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]
Cassio hath here been set on in the dark. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
{To set out}, to begin a journey or course; as, to set out for London, or from London; to set out in business;to set out in life or the world.
{To set to}, to apply one's self to.
{To set up}. (a) To begin business or a scheme of life; as, to set up in trade; to set up for one's self. (b) To profess openly; to make pretensions. [1913 Webster]
Those men who set up for mortality without regard to religion, are generally but virtuous in part. --Swift. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
