Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SET, n.²

In architecture, a horizontal projection from a wall.

SET, pp.

1. Placed; put; located; fixed; adjusted; composed; studded or adorned; reduced, as a dislocated or broken bone.
2. adj. Regular; uniform; formal; as, a set speech or phrase; a set discourse; a set battle.
3. Fixed in opinion; determined; firm; obstinate; as, a man set in his opinions or way.
4. Established; prescribed; as, set forms of prayer.

SET, v.i.

1. To decline; to go down; to pass below the horizon; as, the sun sets; the stars set.
2. To be fixed hard; to be close or firm. – Bacon.
3. To fit music to words. – Shak.
4. To congeal or concrete. That fluid substance in a few minutes begins to set. – Boyle.
5. To begin a journey. The king is set from London. [This is obsolete. We now say, to set out.]
6. To plant; as, “to sow dry, and to set wet.” – Old Proverb.
7. To flow; to have a certain direction in motion; as, the tide sets to the east or north; the current sets westward.
8. To catch birds with a dog that sets them, that is, one that lies down and points them out, and with a large net. – Boyle. To set one's self about, to begin; to enter upon; to take the first steps. To set one's self, to apply one's self. To set about, to fall on; to begin; to take the first steps in a business or enterprise. – Atterbury. To set in, to begin. Winter in New England, usually sets in in December. #2. To become settled in a particular state. When the weather was set in to be very bad. – Addison. To set forward, to move or march; to begin to march; to advance. The sons of Aaron and the sons of Merari set forward. – Num. x. To set on, or upon, to begin a journey or an enterprise. He that would seriously set upon the search of truth – Locke. #2. To assault; to make an attack. – Shak. 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. #2. To have a beginning. – Brown. To set to, to apply one's self to. – Gov. of the Tongue. To set up, to begin business or a scheme of life; as, to set up in trade; to set up for one's self. #2. To profess openly; to make pretensions. He sets up for a man of wit; he sets up to teach morality. – Dryden.

SET, v.t. [pret. and pp. set. Sax. sætan, setan, settan, to set or place, to seat or fix, to appease, to calm, L. sedo; to compose, as a book, to dispose or put in order, to establish, found, or institute, to possess, to cease; G. setzen, to set, to risk or lay, as a wager, to plant, to appoint, to leap or make an onset; D. zetten; Sw. sätta; Dan. setter; W. sodi, to fix, to constitute; gosodi, to set, to lay, to put, to establish, to ordain; gosod, a setting or placing, a site, a statute, an onset or assault; L. sedo, sedeo, and sido, coinciding with sit, but all of one family. From the Norman orthography of this word, we have assess, assise. See Assess. Heb. and Ch. יסד and שות, to set, to place; Syr. ܣܬܬ sett, to found, to establish. Class Sd, No. 31, 56. The primary sense is to throw, to drive, or intransitively, to rush.]

1. To put or place; fix or cause to rest in a standing position. We set a house on a wall of stone; we set a book on a shelf. In this use, set differs from lay; we set a thing on its end or basis; we lay it on its side.
2. To put or place in its proper or natural posture. We set a chest or trunk on its bottom, not on its end; we set a bedstead or a table on its feet or legs.
3. To put, place, or fix in any situation. God set the sun, moon, and stars in the firmament. I do set my bow in the cloud. Gen. ix.
4. To put into any condition or state. The Lord thy God will set thee on high. Deut. xxviii. I am come to set a man at variance against his father. Matth. x. So we say, to set in order, to set at ease, to set to work, or at work.
5. To put; to fix; to attach to. The Lord set a mark upon Cain. Gen. iv. So we say, to set a label on a vial or a bale.
6. To fix; to render motionless; as, the eyes are set; the jaws are set.
7. To put or fix, as a price. We set a price on a house, farm, or horse.
8. To fix; to state by some rule. The gentleman spoke with a set gesture and countenance. Carew. The town of Berne has handsome fountains planted at set distances from one end of the street to the other. – Addison.
9. To regulate or adjust; as, to set a time-piece by the sun. He sets his judgment by his passion. – Prior.
10. To fit to music; to adapt with notes; as, to set the words of a psalm to music. Set thy own songs, and sing them to thy lute. – Dryden.
11. To pitch; to begin to sing in public. He set the hundredth psalm. – Spectator.
12. To plant, as a shrub, tree, or vegetable. Prior.
13. To variegate, intersperse, or adorn with something fixed; to stud; as, to set any thing with diamonds or pearls. High on their heads, with jewels richly set, / Each lady wore a radiant coronet. – Dryden.
14. To return to its proper place or state; to replace; to reduce from a dislocated or fractured state; as, to set a bone or a leg.
15. To fix; to place; as, the heart or affections. Set your affections on things above. – Col. iii. Minds altogether set on trade and profit. – Addison.
16. To fix firmly; to predetermine. The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. – Eccles. viii. Hence we say, a thing is done of set purpose; a man is set, that is, firm or obstinate in his opinion or way.
17. To fix by appointment; to appoint; to assign; as, to set a time for meeting; to set an hour or a day. – Bacon. South.
18. To place or station; to appoint to a particular duty. Am I a sea or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me? – Job vii.
19. To stake at play. [Little used.] – Prior.
20. To offer a wager at dice to another. [Little used.] – Shak.
21. To fix in metal. And him too rich a jewel to be set / In vulgar metal for a vulgar use. – Dryden.
22. To fix; to cause to stop; to obstruct; as, to set a coach in the mire. The wagon or the team was set at the hill, In some of the states, stall is used in a like sense.
23. To embarrass; to perplex. They are hard set to represent the bill as a grievance. – Addison.
24. To put in good order; to fix for use; to bring to a fine edge; as, to set a razor.
25. To loose and extend; to spread; as, to set the sails of a ship.
26. To point out without noise or disturbance; as, a dog sets birds. – Johnson.
27. To oppose. Will you set your wit to a fool's? – Shak.
28. To prepare with runnet for cheese; as, to set milk.
29. To dim; to darken or extinguish. Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age. – 1 Kings xiv. To set by the compass, among seamen, to observe the bearing or situation of a distant object by the compass. To set about, to begin, as an action or enterprise to apply to. He has planned his enterprise, and will soon set about it. To set one's self against, to place in a state of enmity or opposition. The king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem the same day. – Ezek. xxiv. To set against, to oppose; to set in comparison, or to oppose as an equivalent in exchange; as, to set one thing against another; or to set off one thing against another. To set apart, to separate to a particular use; to separate from the rest. #2. To neglect for a time. [Not in use.] – Knolles. To set aside, to omit for the present; to lay out of the question. Setting aside other considerations, I will endeavor to know the truth and yield to that. – Tillotson. #2. To reject. I embrace that of the deluge, and set aside all the rest. – Woodward. #3. To annul; to vacate. The court set aside the verdict, or the judgment. To set abroach, to spread. – Shak. To set a-going, to cause to begin to move. To set by, to set apart or on one side; to reject. – Bacon. [In this sense, by is emphatical.] #2. To esteem; to regard; to value. [In this sense, set is pronounced with more emphasis than by.] To set down, to place upon the ground or floor. #2. To enter in writing; to register. Some rules were to be set down for the government of the army. – Clarendon. #3. To explain or relate in writing. #4. To fit on a resolve. [Little used.] – Knolles. #5. 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. – Hooker. To set forth, to manifest; to offer or present to view Rom. iii. #2. To publish; to promulgate; to make appear. – Waller. #3. To send out; to prepare and send. The Venetian admiral had a fleet of sixty galleys, set forth by the Venetians. [Obs.] – Knolles. #4. To display; to exhibit; to present to view; to show. – Dryden. Milton. To set forward, to advance; to move on; also, to promote. – Hooker. To set in, to put in the way to begin. If you please to assist and set me in, I will recollect myself. – Collier. To set off, to adorn; to decorate; to embellish. They set off the worst faces with the best airs. – Addison. #2. To give a pompous or flattering description of; to eulogize; to recommend; as, to set off a character. #3. To place against as an equivalent; as, to set off one man's services against another's. #4. To separate or assign for a particular purpose; as, to set off a portion of an estate. To set on or upon, to incite; to instigate; to animate to action. Thou, traitor, hast set on thy wife to this. – Shak. #2. To assault or attack; seldom used transitively, but the passive form often used. Alphonsus … was set upon by a Turkish pirate and taken. – Knolles. #3. To employ, as in a task. Set on thy wife to observe. – Shak. #4. To fix the attention; to determine to any thing with settled purpose. It becomes a true lover to have your heart more set upon her good than your own. – Sidney. To set out, to assign; to allot; as, to set out the share of each proprietor or heir of an estate; to set out the widow's thirds. #2. To publish. [Not elegant nor common.] – Swift. #3. To mark by boundaries or distinctions of space. Determinate portions of those infinite abysses of space and duration, set out, or supposed to be distinguished from all the rest by known boundaries. Locke. #4. To adorn; to embellish. An ugly woman in a rich habit, set out with jewels, nothing can become. Dryden. #5. To raise, equip and send forth; to furnish. The Venetians pretend they could set out, in case of great necessity, thirty men of war. Addison. [Not elegant and little used.] #6. To show; to display; to recommend; to set off. I could set out that best side of Luther. Atterbury. #7. To show; to prove. Those very reasons set out how heinous his sin was. [Little used and not elegant.] – Atterbury. #8. In law, to recite; to state at large. – Judge Sedgwick. To set up, to erect; as, to set up a building; to set up a post a wall, a pillar. #2. To begin a new institution; to institute; to establish; to found; as, to set up a manufactory; to set up a school. #3. To enable to commence a new business; as, to set up a son in trade. #4. To raise; to exalt; to put in power; as, to set up the throne of David over Israel. – 2 Sam. iii. #5. To place in view; as, to set up a mark. #6. To raise; to utter loudly; as, to set up the voice. I'll set up such a note as she shall hear. – Dryden. #7. To advance; to propose as truth or for reception; to set up a new opinion or doctrine. – Burnet. #8. To raise from depression or to a sufficient fortune. This good fortune quite set him up. #9. In seamen's language, to extend, as the shrouds, stays, &c. To set at naught, to undervalue; to contemn; to despise. Ye have set at naught all my counsel. – Prov. i. To set in order, to adjust or arrange; to reduce to method. The rest will I set in order when I come. – 1 Cor. xi. To set eyes on, to see; to behold; or to fix the eyes in looking on; to fasten the eyes on. To set the teeth on edge, to affect the teeth with a painful sensation. To set over, to appoint or constitute as supervisor, inspector, ruler or commander. #2. To assign; to transfer; to convey. To set right, to correct; to put in order. To set at ease, to quiet; to tranquilize; as, to set the heart at ease. To set free, to release from confinement, imprisonment or bondage; to liberate; to emancipate. To set at work, to cause to enter on work or action; or to direct how to enter on work. Locke. To set on fire, to communicate fire to; to inflame; and figuratively, to enkindle the passions; to make to rage; to irritate; to fill with disorder. – James iii To set before, to offer; to propose; to present to view. – Deut. xi, xxx. To set a trap, snare or gin, to place in a situation to catch prey; to spread; figuratively, to lay a plan to deceive and draw into the power of another.

SE-TA'CEOUS, a. [L. seta, a bristle.]

1. Bristly; set with bristles; consisting of bristles; as, a stiff setaceous tail. – Derham.
2. In botany, bristle-shaped; having the thickness and length of a bristle; as, a setaceous leaf or leaflet. – Martyn. Setaceous worm, a name given to a water worm that resembles a horse hair, vulgarly supposed to be an animated hair. But this is a mistake. – Encyc.

SET'-DOWN, n.

A powerful rebuke or reprehension.

SET'-FOIL, n. [See SEPT-FOIL.]

SE-TIF'ER-OUS, a. [L. seta and fero.]

Producing or having bristles.

SE'TI-FORM, a. [L. seta, a bristle, and form.]

Having the form of a bristle. – Journ. of Science.

SE'TI-REME, n. [L. seta and remus.]

An animal that has a dense fringe of hairs on the inner side of jointed legs, by which it moves on the water. – Kirby.

SET'-OFF, n. [set and off.]

The act of admitting one claim to counterbalance another. In a set-off, the defendant acknowledges the justice of the plaintif's demand, but sets up a demand of his own to counterbalance it in whole or in part. The right of pleading a set-off depends on statute. – Blackstone. Note. In New England, offset is sometimes used for set-off. But offset has a different sense, and it is desirable that the practice should be uniform, wherever the English Language is spoken.

SE'TON, n. [Fr. from L. seta, a bristle.]

In surgery, a few horse hairs or small threads, or a twist of a silk, drawn through the skin by a large needle, by which a small opening is made and continued. – Encyc. Quincy.

SE'TOUS, a. [It. setoso; L. setosus, from seta, a bristle.]

In botany, bristly; having the surface set with bristles; as, a setous leaf or receptacle. – Martyn.

SET-TEE', n. [from set.]

1. A long seat with a back to it.
2. A vessel with one deck and a very long sharp prow, carrying two or three masts with lateen sails; used in the Mediterranean. – Mar. Dict. Encyc.

SET'TER, n.

1. One that sets; as, a setter on, or inciter; a setter up; a setter forth, &c.
2. A dog that beats the field and starts birds for sportsmen.
3. A man that performs the office of a setting dog, or finds persons to be plundered. South.
4. One that adapts words to music in composition.
5. Whatever sets off, adorns or recommends. [Not used.] – Whitlock.

SET'TER-WORT, n.

A plant, a species of Helleborus. – Fam. of Plants.

SET'TING, n.¹

1. The act of putting, placing, fixing or establishing.
2. The act of sinking below the horizon. The setting of stars is of three kinds, cosmical, acronical, and heliacal. [See these words.]
3. The act or manner of taking birds by a setting dog.
4. Inclosure; as, settings of stones. – Exod. xxviii.
5. The direction of a current at sea.

SET'TING, n.²

In architecture, the quality of hardening in plaster.

SET'TING, ppr.

Placing; putting; fixing; studding; appointing; sinking below the horizon, &c.

SET'TING-COAT, n.

In architecture, the best sort of plastering on walls or ceilings.

SET'TING-DOG, n.

A setter; a dog trained to find and start birds for sportsmen.

SET'TLE, n. [Sax. setl, settl; G. sessel; D. zetel; L. sedile. See Set.]

A seat or bench; something to sit on. – Dryden.

SET'TLE, v.i.

1. To fall to the bottom of liquor; to subside; to sink and rest on the bottom; as, lees or dregs settle. Slimy particles in water settle and form mud at the bottom of rivers. This word is used of the extraneous matter of liquors, when it subsides spontaneously. But in chimical operations, when substances mixed or in solution are decomposed, and one component part subsides, it is said to be precipitated. But it may also be said to settle.
2. To lose motion or fermentation; to deposit, as feces. A government on such occasions, is always thick before it settles. – Addison.
3. To fix one's habitation or residence. Belgians had settled on the southern coast of Britain, before the Romans invaded the isle. English Puritans who first settled in New England. – Vattel, Trans.
4. To marry and establish a domestic state. Where subsistence is easily obtained, children settle at an early period of life.
5. To become fixed after change or fluctuation; as, the wind came about and settled in the west. Bacon.
6. To become stationary; to quit a rambling or irregular course for a permanent or methodical one.
7. To become fixed or permanent; to take a lasting form or state; as, a settled conviction. Chyle … runs through the intermediate colors till it settles in an intense red. – Arbuthnot.
8. To rest; to repose. When time hath worn out their natural vanity, and taught them discretion, their fondness settles on its proper object. Spectator.
9. To become calm; to cease from agitation. Till the fury of his highness settle, / Come not before him. – Shak.
10. To make a jointure for a wife. Lie sighs with most success that settles well. – Garth.
11. To sink by its weight; and in loose bodies, to become more compact. We say, a wall settles, a house settles upon its foundation; a mass of sand settles and becomes more firm.
12. To sink after being heaved, and to dry; as, roads settle in spring after frost and rain.
13. To be ordained or installed over a parish, church or congregation. A. B. was invited to settle in the first society in New Haven. N. D. settled in the ministry very young.
14. To adjust differences or accounts; to come to an agreement. He has settled with his creditors.

SET'TLE, v.t. [from set.]

1. To place in a permanent condition after wandering or fluctuation. I will settle you after your old estates. – Ezek. xxxvi.
2. To fix; to establish; to make permanent in any place. I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom for ever. – 1 Chron. xvii.
3. To establish in business or way of life; as, to settle a son in trade.
4. To marry; as, to settle a daughter.
5. To establish; to confirm. Her will alone could settle or revoke. – Prior.
6. To determine what is uncertain; to establish; to free from doubt; as, to settle questions or points of law. The supreme court have settled the question.
7. To fix; to establish; to make certain or permanent; as, to settle the succession to a throne in a particular family. So we speak of sealed habits and settled opinions.
8. To fix or establish; not to suffer to doubt or waver. It will settle the wavering and confirm the doubtful. – Swift.
9. To make close or compact. Cover ant-hills up that the rain may settle the turf before the spring. – Mortimer.
10. To cause to subside after being heaved and loosened by frost; or to dry and harden after rain. Thus clear weather settles the roads.
11. To fix or establish by gift, grant or any legal act; as, to settle a pension on an officer, or an annuity on a child.
12. To fix firmly. Settle your mind on valuable objects.
13. To cause to sink or subside, as extraneous matter in liquors. In fining wine, we add something to settle the lees.
14. To compose; to tranquilize what is disturbed; as, sells the thoughts or mind when agitated.
15. To establish in the pastoral office; to ordain over a church and society, or parish; as, to settle a minister. – United States. Boswell.
16. To plant with inhabitants; to colonize. The French first settled Canada; the Puritans settled New England. Plymouth was settled in 1620. Hartford was settled in 1636. Wethersfield was the first settled town in Connecticut. Provinces first settled after the flood. – Mitford. Land which they are unable to settle and cultivate. – Vattel, Trans.
17. To adjust; to close by amicable agreement or otherwise; as, to settle a controversy or dispute by agreement, treaty or by force.
18. To adjust; to liquidate; to balance, or to pay; as, to settle accounts. To settle the land, among seamen, to cause it to sink or appear lower by receding from it.

SET'TLED, pp.

Placed; established; fixed; determined; composed; adjusted.