Word.ws English Dictionary

set light

set light verb: followed by to: Synonym of set fire (“to cause to be on fire, to set alight”).

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive) Followed by to: Synonym of set fire (“to cause to be on fire, to set alight”).
    • He was expecting, rather, that in his absence some vessel full of precious liquid would be broken, some syrup left to boil over, some pan to burn dry, in his workshop in the herb-gardens, or else that his brazier would be fed too generously, and set light to the parcels of dried herbs rustling...1981, Ellis Peters, The Leper Of Saint Giles, pages 7-8

Forms of set light

third-person singular presentsets light
present participlesetting light
past participleset light
pastset light

Questions about set light

What does set light mean?
Set light means followed by to: Synonym of set fire (“to cause to be on fire, to set alight”).
What part of speech is set light?
Set light is a verb.
What is the past tense of set light?
The past tense of set light is set light.

Words near set light in the dictionary

  1. set in
  2. set in motion
  3. set in one's ways
  4. set in stone
  5. set in train
  6. set light
  7. set list
  8. set lists
  9. set loose
  10. set menu
  11. set menus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: set light (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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