set

Etymology 1

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

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.
3. (transitive) To put in a specified condition or state; to cause to be.
   Every incident sets him thinking. 1827, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Hamlet
4. (transitive) To start (a fire).
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. (i.e. I programmed it at that hour to go off at a later time)
   I set the alarm for 6 a.m. (i.e. I programmed it earlier to go off at that hour.)
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.
11. (transitive) simple past and past participle of set 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) simple past and past participle of set 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, volleyball) To direct (the ball) to a teammate for an attack.
18. (intransitive) To solidify.
    The glue sets in five 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.
23. (transitive, botany) To produce after pollination.
    to set seed
    Many fruit trees will only flower and set fruit following a cold winter. 2012, Daniel Chamovitz, What a Plant Knows, page 155
24. (intransitive, of fruit) 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. 1906, Canada. Dept. of Agriculture. Fruit Branch, Fruit crop report
25. (intransitive, Southern US, Midwestern US, dialects) 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. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
    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. 1987, Toni Morrison, Beloved, page 227
26. (intransitive, Southern US, Midwestern US, dialects) 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. 1975, “Convoy”, in C.W. McCall, Chip Davis (lyrics), Black Bear Road, performed by C. W. McCall
27. To hunt game with the aid of a setter.
28. (hunting, transitive, intransitive) 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.
30. (transitive, intransitive) To fit music to words.
31. (transitive, intransitive) To place plants or shoots in the ground; to plant.
    to set pear trees in an orchard
    Mr. Forster, from Newcastle, made a purchase here last year. We saw him with eight men setting potatoes within a week of mid-summer. 1774, John Robinson, Thomas Rispin, A Journey Through Nova-Scotia Containing a Particular Account of the Country and its Inhabitants, York: C. Etherington, page 19
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, country dancing) 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
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.
39. To reduce from a dislocated or fractured state.
    to set a broken bone
40. (masonry) To lower into place and fix solidly, as the blocks of cut stone in a structure.
41. (obsolete) To wager in gambling; to risk.
42. To adorn with something infixed or affixed; to stud; to variegate with objects placed here and there.
    pastoral dales thin set with modern farms 1815, William Wordsworth, Poems of the Imagination
43. (obsolete) To value; to rate; used with at.
44. To establish as a rule; to furnish; to prescribe; to assign.
    to set a good example
45. (Scotland) To suit; to become.
    It sets him ill.

Etymology 2

From Middle English set, sette, from Old English set (“seat, place of residence, camp, settlement, entrenchment, stable, pen”), from Proto-West Germanic *set (“seat”), from Proto-Germanic *setą (“seat”).

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
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. (engineering) 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. 29 March 1986, National Transportation Safety Board, “1.12 Wreckage and Impact Information”, in Aircraft Accident Report: China Airlines Boeing 747-SP, N4522V, 300 Nautical Miles Northwest of San Francisco, California, February 19, 1985, archived from the original on 2022-07-10, page 12
9. A bias of mind; an attitude or pattern of behaviour.
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 4, Noun)
15. (colloquial) The manner, state, or quality of setting or fitting; fit.
    the set of a coat
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.
    185?, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit 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.

Etymology 3

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

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. 2013-07-19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 34
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 ― a meal that is instituted by a restaurateur for a limited occasion
   a set book ― a required reading for a course in an educational institution
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.

Etymology 4

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.

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.
4. (literally and figurative) 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. 1840, Thomas De Quincey, Style
   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[…]” 1951, Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny, page 238
5. A matching collection of similar things. (Note the similar meaning in Etymology 2, 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. 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.
13. (dance) The initial or basic formation of dancers.
14. (exercise) A group of repetitions of a single exercise performed one after the other without rest.
    This is the fourth set of benchpresses. 1974, Charles Gaines, George Butler, Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding, page 22
15. (tennis) A complete series of games, forming part of a match.
16. (volleyball) A complete series of points, forming part of a match.
17. (volleyball) The act of directing the ball to a teammate for an attack.
18. (music) 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. June 26, 2017, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and more”, in the Guardian
19. (music) A drum kit, a drum set.
    He plays the set on Saturdays.
20. (UK, education) 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. 2012-04-26, “Themes: Pupil grouping and organisation of classes”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), Department for Education, archived from the original on 2012-06-14
21. (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”).

Etymology 5

verb

1. (UK, education) 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. 2008, Patricia Murphy, Robert McCormick, Knowledge and Practice: Representations and Identities
   At Amber Hill, setting was a high-profile concept, and the students were frequently reminded of the set to which they belonged. 2002, Jo Boaler, Experiencing School Mathematics: Traditional and Reform Approaches and Their Impact on Student Learning
   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. 2013-07-19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30