Word.ws English Dictionary

setting to work

setting to work is the present participle and gerund of set to work.

Meaning of set to work

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.
  2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To begin working at.
    • As soon as I could, I set to work making the entries.
  3. (transitive) To cause to begin working.
    • I will immediately set them to work.
    Synonyms:
    put to work

Questions about setting to work

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

Words near setting to work in the dictionary

  1. setting the world to rights
  2. setting time
  3. setting times
  4. setting to
  5. setting to music
  6. setting to work
  7. setting together by the ears
  8. setting up
  9. setting up camp
  10. setting up one's bristles
  11. setting up one's staff

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: setting to work (page history and authors); set to work (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:

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