Word.ws English Dictionary

setting light

setting light is the present participle and gerund of set light.

Meaning of set light

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

Questions about setting light

What is setting light the present participle and gerund of?
Setting light is the present participle and gerund of set light.

Words near setting light in the dictionary

  1. setting free
  2. setting in
  3. setting in motion
  4. setting in stone
  5. setting in train
  6. setting light
  7. setting loose
  8. setting off
  9. setting on
  10. setting on a pedestal
  11. setting on fire

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: setting light (page history and authors); 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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