Word.ws English Dictionary

set fire by

set fire by is the obsolete form of set fire to.

Meaning of set fire to

Verb

set fire to (third-person singular simple present sets fire to, present participle setting fire to, simple past set fire to, past participle set fire to or (dialectal) setten fire to)

  1. (transitive) To cause (something) to be on fire; to set (something) alight.
    • They set fire to the house.
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To destroy or dismantle (something).
    • As soon as the new CEO arrived, he started setting fire to the old way of doing things.
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To stir up intense emotion or action in (something).
    • All it took was one word to set fire to the crowd.
    Synonyms:
    set on fire

Forms of set fire by

third-person singular presentsets fire by
present participlesetting fire by
pastset fire by
past participleset fire by
past participle (dialectal)setten fire by

Questions about set fire by

What is set fire by the obsolete form of?
Set fire by is the obsolete form of set fire to.

Words near set fire by in the dictionary

  1. set dresser
  2. set dressers
  3. set dressing
  4. set eyes on
  5. set fair
  6. set fire by
  7. set fire in
  8. set fire into
  9. set fire of
  10. set fire on
  11. set fire to

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: set fire by (page history and authors); set fire to (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “set fire by.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/set_fire_by. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.