setting back
setting back is the present participle and gerund of set back.
Meaning of set back
Verb
set back (third-person singular simple present sets back, present participle setting back, simple past and past participle set back)
- To delay or obstruct.
- I expect it will set us back by a day or so, but I think a side trip will be worthwhile.
- To remove from or allow distance.
- Set it back from the road by twenty or thirty feet.
- To install or position behind a boundary or surface, or in a recess.
- The statue was set back in a niche.
- To cost money.
- How much do you suppose that fancy dress set her back?
- To reverse, go backwards.
- Before the platforms were extended up to the actual junction, branch trains had to set back into a bay.1939 December, John D. Hewitt, “Some Notable British Main Lines: II. Salisbury and Exeter, S.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 412
Questions about setting back
- What is setting back the present participle and gerund of?
- Setting back is the present participle and gerund of set back.
Words near setting back in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: setting back (page history and authors); set 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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Cite this entry: “setting back.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/setting_back. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
