Word.ws English Dictionary

set to

set to verb: to begin something with determination; to commence a long and difficult task or project.

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.
    • 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; […]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. […]...
  2. (archaic, intransitive) To fight.
    • I set to with the rude man.

Forms of set to

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

Questions about set to

What does set to mean?
Set to means to begin something with determination; to commence a long and difficult task or project.
What part of speech is set to?
Set to is a verb.
What is the past tense of set to?
The past tense of set to is set to.

Words near set to in the dictionary

  1. set the world on fire
  2. set the world to rights
  3. set theoretically
  4. set theories
  5. set theory
  6. set to
  7. set to music
  8. set to work
  9. set together by the ears
  10. set tool
  11. set tools

Source and license

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