Word.ws English Dictionary

set fire on

set fire on 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 on

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

Questions about set fire on

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

Words near set fire on in the dictionary

  1. set fair
  2. set fire by
  3. set fire in
  4. set fire into
  5. set fire of
  6. set fire on
  7. set fire to
  8. set fire unto
  9. set fire upon
  10. set foot
  11. set foot on land

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: set fire on (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 on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/set_fire_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.