Word.ws English Dictionary

set to work

set to work verb: to begin working.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To begin working.
    • As soon as he got home, he went to his desk and set to work.
    • Every day he sets to work at the new assignments.
  2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To begin working at.
    • As soon as I could, I set to work making the entries.
    • The Crescent Road sheds had a favourite locomotive - Stanier 4MT tank engine 42626 (known by Bolton locomen as 'two half-dollars') - and the shed authorities quietly arranged for it to be put to one side for a few days, while the ardent schoolboys set to work cleaning it.2023 March 8, Paul Salveson, “Fond farewells to two final trains...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 55
  3. (transitive) To cause to begin working.
    • I will immediately set them to work.
    • I was setting the children to work cleaning their rooms.
    Synonyms:
    put to work

set to work meaning in Bengali and Sanskrit

set to work in Bengali

কাজ শুরু করা, কাজ শুরু করানো

set to work in Sanskrit

set to work, engaged, occupied with
युक्त yuktá

Synonyms of set to work

Forms of set to work

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

Questions about set to work

What does set to work mean?
Set to work means to begin working.
What is set to work in Bengali?
Set to work in Bengali is কাজ শুরু করা, কাজ শুরু করানো. See Set to work meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is set to work?
Set to work is a verb.
What is the past tense of set to work?
The past tense of set to work is set to work.

Words near set to work in the dictionary

  1. set theoretically
  2. set theories
  3. set theory
  4. set to
  5. set to music
  6. set to work
  7. set together by the ears
  8. set tool
  9. set tools
  10. set top box
  11. set top boxes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: set to work (page history and authors); set to work (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); युक्त (Sanskrit) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-set to work.ogg.

Cite this entry: “set to work.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/set_to_work. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.