set to

English

Verb

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

  1. (ambitransitive) To begin something with determination; to commence a long and difficult task or project.
    Having laid out the picnic, the hungry boys set to with gusto.
    • 1649, Richard Baxter, “The Abstract or Sum of All, for the Use of the Weak”, in The Saints Everlasting Rest: Or, A Treatise of the Blessed State of the Saints in Their Enjoyment of God in Glory. […], London: […] Rob[ert] White, for Thomas Underhil and Francis Tyton, […], →OCLC, part IV (Containing a Directory for the Getting and Keeping of the Heart in Heaven: […]), section 1, page 788:
      VVhen thou ſetſt to the vvork, look up tovvard Heaven, let thine eie lead thee as neer as it can; remember that there is thine Everlaſting Reſt; […]
  2. (intransitive, archaic) To fight.
    I set to with the rude man.

Anagrams

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