set on foot

• set afoot

Compare the identical French mettre sur pied, of which this may be a calque.

set on foot (third-person singular simple present sets on foot, present participle setting on foot, simple past and past participle set on foot)

1. (transitive) To originate; to put into action.
   • 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book I, chapter 3:

     Meanwhile that little disappointment made her delight the more in Sir James Chettam's readiness to set on foot the desired improvements.

Not to be confused with set foot on.

• footnotes, footstone