Word.ws English Dictionary

set one's watch back

set one's watch back verb: to ponder or experience a past time.

Verb

set one's watch back (third-person singular simple present sets one's watch back, present participle setting one's watch back, simple past and past participle set one's watch back)

  1. (idiomatic, imperative) To ponder or experience a past time.
    • Set your watch back to 1773, as I explain what happened at the Boston Tea Party.
    • Tony drove more slowly than usual , and Ginny felt the tension of the day slip away . He took her to a tiny café tucked away on a quiet street. “Set your watch back to 1932," Tony said as he pulled out a chair for her […]1985, Amanda York, Stardust and Sand, Harlequin Books, →ISBN

Forms of set one's watch back

third-person singular presentsets one's watch back
present participlesetting one's watch back
past participleset one's watch back
pastset one's watch back

Questions about set one's watch back

What does set one's watch back mean?
Set one's watch back means to ponder or experience a past time.
What part of speech is set one's watch back?
Set one's watch back is a verb.
What is the past tense of set one's watch back?
The past tense of set one's watch back is set one's watch back.

Words near set one's watch back in the dictionary

  1. set one's heart on
  2. set one's heart upon
  3. set one's house in order
  4. set one's shoulder to the wheel
  5. set one's sights
  6. set one's watch back
  7. set one's watch by someone
  8. set onto
  9. set operation
  10. set operations
  11. set out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: set one's watch back (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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